UDA primaries nixed in four Narok South wards after rigging claims

United Democratic Alliance(UDA) primaries in four Narok South constituency wards were called off after irate locals blocked the release of voting materials, citing a rigging plot by one of the four aspirants.

Supporters of three aspirants converged at the ward's Ole Ntutu Arid Zone Primary School tallying centre, accusing one of the aspirants of placing his cronies on the list of presiding officers.

They blocked the lorry carrying ballot papers to the 17 polling stations, stalling voting.

This affected other wards, such as Sagamian, Melelo and Sogoo where locals were upbeat about voting.

The aspirants disagreed on whether voting should proceed as planned by the party.

Mr Dominic Lemein, one of the aspirants, exuded confidence in the voting, saying that he was ready.

"We woke up and went to the tallying centres to pick up our voting materials but we were shocked to find that some people had blocked them. It is so unfortunate that some people are claiming that the selection of clerks and presiding officers was biased," he said.

He rubbished claims that he had picked his henchmen as clerks and presiding officers, saying that each of the four aspirants was given the opportunity to appoint presiding officers.

For his part, Mr Benard Sang’, another aspirant, faulted the county party leaders, claiming they had a hidden agenda.

"We provided the list of the presiding officers but this morning we realised that the names presented were not what we had submitted. That is when we suspected something fishy was going on," Mr Sang’ said.

He called on the party leader, Deputy President William Ruto, to intervene and ensure that voting is free, fair and devoid of any irregularities.

The standoff also drew the party's county leaders, who toured the constituency tallying centre and cancelled voting.

Mr Joseph Kasale, the UDA coordinator, ordered voting to be postponed immediately and called for an urgent meeting of aspirants to set a new date.

"We received complaints that the release of voting materials had been delayed and we made a visit to the affected area. We found that the offices had been closed at around 10am by locals," Mr Kasale told journalists.

He said he also witnessed voting materials being escorted by the police back to the UDA centre in Narok town.

"We decided that we did not want the voting materials destroyed and we transported them to the county headquarters as we hold talks with aspirants on the preferred (new) date for nominations," he added.

The cancellation of voting was a double blow for the constituency, a day after parliamentary primaries were pushed to April 19 when consensus talks among the four aspirants reportedly collapsed.

UDA parliamentary primaries will take place in only two constituencies of the six in Narok County – Kilgoris and Emurua Dikirr.

In Narok West, Narok North and Narok East, the party gave direct tickets to Gabriel Tongoyo, Kerimboti Sadera and Lemanken Aramat respectively.

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