'Why only me?' Wajackoyah cries as KIEMS kit hitch delays his voting

Addressing the press at Indangalasia Primary School, the presidential hopeful said he was disappointed and criticised IEBC for the failure.

“I am a disappointed man because all my competitors have voted; I am told Raila voted, Mwaure has already voted. I just spoke with him to congratulate him, and Ruto has voted. So why only me? Why Kakamega County? Why didn't they test the kits?... I don’t know what to say,” he said.

Prof. Wajackoyah further termed Kakamega as one of his main voter strongholds, saying the delay was robbing him of significant support for his bid.

“I am not an engineer and if they tell me the kits are not working, then I listen to them. I have lost millions of votes, Kakamega is one of my strongholds,” he added.

“I am very disappointed.” Roots Party presidential candidate Prof. George Wajackoyah express frustration of KIEM kit failure #JustVoted #KenyasChoice2022 #KenyaDecides2022 pic.twitter.com/6yQ8HNbQFv

Prof. Wajackoyah turned up at the Indangalasia Primary School at around a quarter past 10 am but was unable to vote due to the KIEMS kit failure which delayed the kick-off of the exercise.

As of noon, no one in the polling station had cast their vote.

“We are waiting to see what happens, like they have said. They said they would give us another 11 hours and asked us to be patient,” Prof. Wajackoyah told voters outside the polling station earlier in the morning.

The presidential race has attracted four contenders: the Roots Party leader himself, David Mwaure of the Agano Party, Deputy President William Ruto of Kenya Kwanza, and Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition’s Raila Odinga.

Polling stations opened at 6am across the country and DP Ruto and Mr. Mwaure were among the early voters.

Dr. Ruto cast his vote some minutes past 6am at Kosachei Primary School in Sugoi, Uasin Gishu County, flanked by his wife Mama Rachel Ruto.

Mr. Mwaure meanwhile cast his vote at Upper Hill Secondary School in Nairobi alongside his wife Ann Mwaure at around 7:15am.

Their other competitor, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga voted at the Old Kibera primary school in Nairobi.

The nation's 22,120,458 registered voters will go to the polls this year to elect 290 Members of the National Assembly, 1,450 Members of County Assembly, 47 senators, governors and woman representatives, as well as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s successor.

The election has drawn 63 political parties, with at least 11,330 candidates running for various seats.

The grand political contest has also drawn 3752 independent candidates vying for various seats across the country.

According to IEBC election data, 261 women are running for County MP seats across the counties, while 1,473 people are running for Member of Parliament seats.

Other candidates include 9,142 people who are running for county assembly seats, while 183 and 263 people are running for governor and senator, respectively.