Elections in Ruiru marred by low voter turnout

Voting

By 11am, there were no queues at the Ruiru CDF Hall polling station in Ruiru constituency, Kiambu County. The polling station has 203 registered voters.

Photo credit: Jackline Macharia | Nation Media Group

Low voter turnout has been witnessed in various polling stations in Ruiru constituency, Kiambu county.

In Ruiru CDF Hall polling station, there were only a handful of voters when the polling station opened at 6:30 am.

By 11 am, no voters were lining up to vote.

The presiding officer at the station said few people had turned out to vote. The station has 203 registered voters.

A few metres away at St George's Primary school, the situation was slightly better with more voters turning up to cast their ballots.

The turnout was, however, still low as 3,069 people were expected to vote at the five polling stations in the school.

Former Kiambu governor William Kabogo cast his vote at the school and called upon members of the public to come out and vote.

"Kenyans should not stay at home and fail to vote and then later complain about having bad leaders. They should come and vote and elect leaders who will bring about the change they need," he said.

There have been no issues with the KIEMS kits in the majority of the polling stations.

IEBC officials are using both the KIEMS kit and the manual register to identify voters.

The electoral commission has announced that 6,567,869 million Kenyans had turned up to vote by 12pm on Tuesday.

IEBC vice chairperson Juliana Cherera said polls were opened at 6am in most places countrywide as well as in the diaspora.