Chaos rocks UDA primaries in Nakuru amid rigging claims
Voters at Kapkures polling station in Nakuru West on April 14, 2022 protest at the slow pace in which the UDA primaries were being conducted.
Chaos and confusion rocked UDA nominations in parts of Nakuru Town East constituency following claims of vote rigging and discrepancies in the voter registers.
While most of the polling centres registered low turn-out, others such as those in Biashara Ward did not manage to carry out the nominations after chaos erupted.
Centres such as Nakuru railway station, St Mary’s Primary School, Lanet social hall and Kivumbini experienced commotion as voter’s disrupted the exercise.
At the Nakuru railways polling station, a section of voters boycotted the exercise and demanded its closure, alleging that there existed a rigging scheme by some party bigwigs in favour of a particular candidate.
The voters took to the streets protesting against the incumbent MP David Gikaria and Senator Susan Kihika whom they accused of plotting a scheme to interfere with the outcome of the primaries in favour of a particular ward representative candidate.
Nation.Africa can confirm that the exercise was yet to kick off by 7pm despite other voters waiting patiently outside the station to cast their ballots.
Names missing
On the other hand, a number of voters were turned away by poll officials at the Lanet social hall after it emerged that their names were missing in the voter’s register
Ms Dorcas Wanjiru said she was turned away by the polling clerk after her name missed in the voters’ list.
She expressed her disappointment, noting that she has been a voter at the station for over 20 years
“I have been voting at this station for the last 20 years but was shocked when I was told that my name was not in the list. So I am left wondering where my name is,” said Ms Wanjiru
Another voter, Ms Joyce Wambui, whose name was also missing from the register, regretted wasting her time in the queue only to be turned away.
The woman denied having changed her station or transferring her voting station.
Low voter turnout
Constituency returning officer Richard Sawe said they region had a low voter turnout across its 56 polling stations.
In Gilgil Sub-County, voting was delayed for some hours despite voters arriving at polling stations early.
Voting in most polling centres started as late as 10am to the fury of impatient voters who had arrived earlier.
One of the residents, Mr John Kimani, said he arrived by 6am expecting to cast his vote before proceeding to work.
He lamented the delay, saying that he would be forced to wait until evening when he comes from work in order to vote.
"I was expecting that polling centres will be open by 7am so that I can vote before going to work. Now I have been here for two hours but there is no sign of the exercise starting," said Mr Kimani.
Ballot materials were being dispatched from Comboni Polytechnic to the more than 82 polling stations.
Transport hitches
Sub-county returning officer Joshua Mutahi said there were issues with transportation which caused the delay in distribution of the materials.
"We have, however, sorted the logistic problem and everything is going on well. All the officials have arrived and we have dispatched the ballot materials to the polling centres," said Mr Mutai.
Each polling station was assigned a presiding officer, two clerks and two police officers.
The returning officer said he expected a huge number of voters to turn up at the polling station once the voting begun.
The region has at least 80,000 registered voters.
Gilgil MP Martha Wangari and former Nakuru county assembly deputy clerk Steve Gatimu were the only aspirants battling for the party's ticket.
Rigging claims
On Wednesday, Mr Gatimu had alleged plans to rig the nominations in favour of the incumbent.
But the returning officer r assured of a free fair and transparent exercise.
Mr Gatimu later said he was satisfied with the process after his concerns were addressed.
The aspirant had complained about the polling clerks, whom he claimed were allied to Ms Wangari.
"Despite the little delay we are satisfied with how the exercise is being conducted especially after the issues we raised yesterday (Wednesday) were acted upon by the party and the polling officials were reshuffled," said Mr Gatimu.
Voting in Nakuru West went on smoothly despite earlier threats by some aspirants to boycott the primaries.
Only nominations for members of county assembly, woman representative and senator took place after the party postponed parliamentary nominations.
