Security tightened at Shauri Moyo tallying centre

Written By:KBC reporters,    Posted: Thu, Aug 18, 2011

A voter turns up to cast his vote in the kamukunji by-election Security has been tightened at YMCA Shauri Moyo where votes will be tallied from 6pm. There are reports that extra police officers have been dispatched to the hall as voting comes to a close.   Voting ends at 5pm and tallying is expected to start an hour later. Earlier, voting exercise for the Kamukunji by-election kicked off as planned early Thursday amid reports of voter bribery and double registration. Though the exercise was marked by low voter turn out, no major ugly incidents were reported. However several people were arrested over various malpractices. According to Joseph Masindet, the returning officer,  20 people were arrested from various polling stations as they attempted to vote. One female voter was arrested at about 7 a.m. over allegations of vote buying when she was caught with about 50 voters' cards in her possession and a large sum of money suspected to be intended for bribing voters. The allegations have been traded between the two main parties ODM and PNU, with MPs allied to either side accusing the others of vote buying. ODM's Margaret Wanjiru who is at the constituency rubbished claims that her ODM counterparts were bribing voters, saying that they were only in Kamukunji to monitor the exercise. The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) officials reported at various polling centes as scheduled at 6 a.m. Voting started well in most of the with PNU candidate Yusuf Hassan casting his ballot at Eastleigh High School at 8.20 am while ODM's Ibrahim Ahmed  alias Johnny voted at  St Teresa primary school cast  a few minutes after 10 am. Narc-Kenya's Brian Weke and Tip Tip's Geoffrey Mutuku also cast their votes. The election has been billed as a fight between ODM, PNU Alliance and Narc-Kenya, fighting to control Nairobi politics. The seat fell vacant after the High Court nullified the election of former MP, Simon Mbugua, in January, over irregularities. Other candidates are Geoffrey Mutuku (Tip), Daniel Omao (Ford-People), and James Matagaro of the Kenya Social Congress.