Kibicho: We are '150,000 officers ready' for the elections

Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho

The Government has said deployment of at least 150,000 security officers is complete.

Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said after casting their ballot, voters would be expected to stay at least 400 metres away from a polling station as required by law.

"...this will give room for the general observers to take charge," said Mr Kibicho in a warning over Opposition plans to have supporters at polling stations to 'protect' votes.

He reiterated that any forms of intimidation and obstruction of justice would be dealt with firmly.

"People should be responsible and give statements of peace, any form of incitement and obstruction of the law will be dealt with," he said.

He added: "We will support the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to conduct a peaceful and credible elections."

Multi-agency approach

Kibicho said the deployment of security forces to the counties had begun, adding that Sunday would be the final day when every security detail will have been deployed.

He said a multi-agency approach would be used with personnel drawn from the National police, National Youth Service and the Kenya Wildlife Service placed under one command centre in every county to ensure continuous flow of communication to foster coordination.

He added that the multi-agency training that had been ongoing at the Embakasi barracks was aimed at preparing the security forces for the worst-case scenarios. "The preparedness to the general election started one and a half years ago and it is not something that just began recently," said the PS.

Kibicho, however, said with the deployment of NYS and their role would be limited to crowd management as the police would be left to enforce the law. "We are working together with all relevant bodies to ensure credible elections," said Kibicho.