Kibra constituents woke up early on Thursday to vote for their new MP, with polling stations opened at 6:00 am in the five wards of the constituency. The residents will elect their next leader from a list of 24 candidates, with the showdown names being ODM’s Imran Okoth, Jubilee’s McDonald Mariga, ANC’s Eliud Owalo, Ford Kenya’s Khamisi Butichi among others. There were queues at different polling stations, even though by early morning, the turn out was still low, something which has been attributed to Thursday being a working day.
Speaking at one of the polling centres, Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang, who is also an ODM agent, said the process was going on well. However, he said the turnout during the morning hours wasn’t so good and urged residents to turn up and vote. He said they have the opportunity to elect the leader they want, instead of waiting to complain later on when a leader they didn’t want to elect doesn’t serve them well.
Makadara MP George Aladwa, speaking from the DC Grounds, said voting was going on well and he hadn’t heard any issues of disturbance. He said there were no insecurity incidences, “You can see police all over and people don’t want any violence in Kibra they want to vote and elect their next member of parliament,” he said.
On his part, Mumias East MP and the National Assembly chief whip Ben Washiali said as Jubilee party there is no reason to doubt IEBC, adding that they are confident IEBC will conduct the elections fairly, “For us Jubilee, we are confident that our candidate McDonald Mariga will win.” The MP has also given a favorable rating to the security apparatus, and requested party supporters to be peaceful, “At the end of the day, we want to see democracy have its role in identifying who will lead the people of Kibra,” he said.