Kirinyaga Governor Joseph Ndathi did not vote on Monday after angry voters set ablaze ballot materials at Rukenya Primary School in Gichugu. They were protesting because of the missing names and photos of eight MCA aspirants and delayed delivery of materials.
The voters invaded the polling room and chased away the presiding officers before breaking the ballot boxes and burning the ballot papers. After a delay of 12 hours, voting started at Wanguru Girls Secondary School and Ngurubani Primary School polling centres in Mwea constituency at 6pm after election materials were flown in.
But in most of the polling stations, voting kicked of smoothly, with some stations opening as early as 6am.
In other centres such as Kabare Primary School, Ithareini market, and Kiringa Coffee Factory, voters had to wait until noon for the ballot materials to be delivered, while in some stations no ballot papers were were received at all.
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At Tebere ward, the voting started after 1pm.
At Kiambatha and Ngariama primary schools, voters could not pick their gubernatorial candidate until ballot papers were delivered at 2pm. In some polling centres, voting did not take place at all as no materials were delivered. Kutus primary and secondary schools in Gichugu constituency remained locked.
After the delayed delivery of voting materials, gubernatorial aspirant and former Devolution secretary Anne Waiguru requested the party to provide security and lighting so that the voting hours could be extended.
She opposed the calling off of the nominations a second time and attributed the anomalies to the large number of ward representative candidates. She said the missing MCAs should be given their own day to vote.
Ms Waiguru and Kirinyaga Senator Daniel Karaba asked that nominations in areas that experienced disruptions be repeated.
The two said it was easier to repeat the ward nominations on a separate day instead of holding the entire county at ransom. "People are tired. We cannot ask people to come out for a third day," said Waiguru.
