Voting officially closed as IEBC downplays concerns on low turnout

Addressing the media a few minutes after 5pm, IEBC Commissioner Francis Wanderi said 56.7 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots as of 4pm.

"At around 4.00pm, 12,065,803 registered voters out of 22,120,458 had cast their vote. This equates to 56.17 percent of voter turn-out excluding voting through the manual register," said IEBC. 

Wanderi downplayed concerns about the perceived low voter out across the country, noting that the number of voters would rise to about 60 percent once the exercise is concluded in all polling stations across the country.

Some of the polling stations were forced to extend voting time due to logistical and technical hitches.

"There are many reasons that may cause low voter turn out. As of now, we are at 56.7%...we are doing well because voting is still ongoing.

In some areas, the voter turnout is quite high. So I don't think we have a problem with the turnout and this was at 4 pm. I'm sure we are going to hit 60%," said Wanderi.

On the issue of voter identification KIEMS kits that failed in certain polling stations, the electoral commission noted that only about 200 kits out of the 46,229 kits that were deployed across the country had challenges.

"Out of 46,229 KIEMs kits that were deployed, we are talking about 200 or something. That is not a bad rate of success. We are going to investigate what could have happened. Next time you will not find any failure," said Wanderi.

On the cases of voters turned away from polling stations due to conflicting details, the commission says it is not to blame since it allowed the public time to verify and confirm their details.

Meanwhile, the electoral commission says voting Eldas Constituency, Wajir County has been postponed to Wednesday, August 10 owing to cases of insecurity in the area.

More to follow...