The Amani National Congress (ANC) party cancelled its primaries in Kakamega County on Monday morning due to a delay in delivering voting materials.
The nominations were to take place in three constituencies – Lugari, Ikolomani and Matungu.
An internal memo signed by ANC elections board chairman Salim Busaidy said voting had been pushed to Wednesday due to unavoidable circumstances.
Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala, the party’s county chairman, said the delivery of voting materials had been delayed.
“The voting materials will arrive in Kakamega three hours late and it will not be possible to distribute [them] to polling centres and be able to proceed with the primaries,” Senator Malala explained.
Aspirants in nine constituencies and 43 wards were given direct tickets and primaries will not be held there.
“We are being strategic in our approach in the nomination exercise and that is why we were able to settle on aspirants in the rest of the constituencies and wards through consensus and negotiations,” said Senator Malala.
In Butere constituency, Mr Habil Nanyendo, a former ally of Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, defected from ODM to ANC, protesting the decision to give MP Tindi Mwale a direct ticket.
The DAP-K party gave Lugari MP Ayub Savula a direct ticket on Monday to contest the Kakamega governorship after Kakamega Deputy Governor Philip Kutima pulled out of the race.
Prof Kutima defected from ODM to DAP-K, accusing Governor Oparanya of frustrating his plans to contest the seat.
But on Monday, Prof Kutima said he had decided to support Mr Savula’s bid in the August 9 polls.
Mr Savula is expected to face Senator Malala and ODM’s Fernandes Barasa, a former chief executive of the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco).
Senator Malala said DAP-K’s decision to issue a direct ticket to Mr Savula was an ODM scheme to divide votes in the region so as to ensure Mr Barasa clinches the seat.
“I’m asking my brother Savula not to accept to be used in the schemes by ODM to divide the votes in the region to favour Mr Barasa. He should let voters in Kakamega elect their next governor and avoid schemes by ODM to impose a candidate on them,” said Mr Malala.
