Security tight at tallying centre

By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com  ( email the author)

Posted  Wednesday, March 6  2013 at  00:30

In Summary

• Hundreds gather at the Bomas of Kenya, with contingent of police officers keeping watch

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Hundreds of people have gathered in the auditorium at the Bomas of Kenya for tallying of results of the General Election with security being tight.

Located near the border of Rift Valley and Nairobi provinces, the venue is in many ways different from the Kenyatta International Conference Centre that sits in the middle of the capital city.

While KICC was easily accessible in 2007, one would need a vehicle or a rather long walk from a bus stage to make it to Bomas.

A helicopter circled above the Bomas of Kenya on Monday night.

Regular and Administration Police officers and their counterparts from the General Service Unit are keeping watch, regularly going into meetings with their commanders before deploying around the expansive grounds.

People who show up at the gate are required to either have accreditation from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission or documents showing they are invited guests, for example, diplomats or accredited observers.  

Even after the visitors produce this proof at the gate, their bags are checked by policemen for explosives and guns. Their accreditation badges are then stamped.

At the entrance to the auditorium, the visitors queue for a pat down. Their luggage and belts are checked using a scanner from the Kenya Airports Authority.

All bottles are left at the door as no liquids are allowed into the auditorium.

All the people entering the auditorium have to be frisked, with their luggage scanned, irrespective of whether they left the place to take a cup of tea at the media centre.

The Presidential Guard deployed at the door leaves nothing to chance. 

There was a little problem at one point on Monday evening when Political Parties Registrar Lucy Ndung’u and policemen manning the door turned away journalists, saying the venue was full.

Only invited representatives of political parties were allowed in.

The problems was, however, resolved when the electoral commission’s communications staff stepped in.