Ikolomani MP candidate, aides arrested carrying crude weapons

ANC parliamentary candidate for Ikolomani Constituency, Butichi Khamisi, was arrested on Tuesday morning along with nine people near Malinya market, Kakamega County.

Mr Khamisi was arrested at 2am, a few hours before voting got underway at 6am.

Kakamega South Police Commander Benjamin Wambua said Mr Khamisi was in the company of people who were armed with clubs and machetes along Malinya road and were suspected to have been preparing to commit a felony.

The suspects were taken to the Kakamega police station for questioning.

“We arrested Mr Butichi in the company of people carrying crude weapons. The suspects will be charged with attempting to commit a felony,” Mr Wambua said.

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Voting kicked off smoothly in Kakamega, Vihiga, Busia and Bungoma County, with long queues forming at polling stations from as early as 4am.

At the MOPW ChilPark polling station, voting started at 6am even as some voters were turned away after their details in the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) kits indicated that they were registered in a different polling station.

A presiding officer at the station, Ms Virginia Imbenzi, said 17 voters had registered 40 minutes after voting kicked off.

The polling station has seven streams and in located next to the Muliro Gardens in Kakamega town.

“We have not had any challenges so far with the kits and the voting is progressing smoothly,” said Ms Imbenzi.

In Vihiga County, most of the 628 polling centres, among them Mbale Prison that has only one voter, opened at 6am to pave the way for the 310,063 voters to cast their votes.

From as early as 2am, the mobilisation efforts had started and vuvuzela and whistle sounds rented the air in parts of Vihiga County to alert voters to get out in large numbers to vote in the General Election.

At Mbale Prison polling station, the sole voter was allowed to vote for the position of the President only.

No major incidences or hitches were observed at the start of the polling exercise with KIEMS kits functioning effectively across the region.

Voters turned up as early as 3am in parts of the county and were seen on queues waiting for the polling stations to open.

Some 3,768 poll clerks have been engaged by the IEBC to help the voters undertake their democratic duty.

County Returning Officer Mr Peter Tiyo said poll materials were taken to all the polling stations on the eve of the General Election.

He asked voters to turn out in large numbers and vote peacefully.

By Sylvania Ambani, Benson Amadala and Derick Luvega