Disputes rock tallying centres in Nairobi

Police bar supporters of ormer Dagoretti MP Dennis Waweru from storming PC Kinyanjui Technical Training Institute where the former MP claimed there was tempering of ballot papers to deny him victory. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

Disputes erupted in constituency tallying centres in Nairobi, delaying the release of various election results.

There was a commotion at Upper Hill Secondary School yesterday (Thursday) where vote tallying for the Kibera Constituency was being in progress.

This was after it emerged that some two ballot boxes for Women Representative did not have crucial forms that are countersigned by agents and IEBC officials.

Calm was restored after it was realised that the forms had been sealed inside parliamentary ballot boxes.

After about half an hour of commotion at the tallying centre, all the parties agreed to continue with the tallying.

Peter Orero of ODM was declared winner of the Kibra parliamentary seat after garnering 33,008 votes against UDA's Mc Donald Mariga who managed 20,049 votes.

The incumbent MP Bernard Okoth- Imran who was vying as an independent candidate came third with 18,901 votes.

In Mathare, reporters were ejected from St Teresa Girls Primary Schools as two factions disputed the tallying process.

Members of the public and some agents were also locked out as tension mounted at the centre. Supporters of two ward representatives caused commotion delaying tallying.

Tallying in Embakasi North was also suspended after a commotion at Dandora Secondary School.

Two factions engaged in a shouting match at the tallying centre.

In Kamukunji tallying was delayed after it emerged that some presiding officers had put result forms in sealed ballot boxes.

Seals of about seven ballot boxes had to be broken to access the forms.

There was tension at the Kamukunji YMCA hall after agents demanded an explanation as to why result forms were sealed in the ballot boxes. By the time of going to press, tallying had just resumed.

There was also commotion at PC Kinyanjui Technical Training Institute after former MP Dennis Waweru attempted to stop the tallying claiming that the process was marred with fraud.

The former MP claimed that there was tempering of ballot papers to deny him victory.

Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie who defended the seat on UDA ticket was declared the winner after he garnered 26,394 votes against Waweru's 22,773 votes.

The former MP alleged that apart from his agents being thrown out of the tallying centre, the previous night, there was a stuffing of ballots in favour of Kiarie whom he accused of sponsoring violence since election day.

"They have also stolen three ballot boxes which are still missing yet the IEBC officials are tallying votes without giving an explanation about the missing ballot boxes," said Waweru.

At one point, the former MP clashed with police officers after his agents were denied access to the tallying centre.

Despite calling for the suspension of the tallying for an audit to be conducted over the alleged fraud, Roselyne Kasane went ahead and released the results a few minutes before 5pm.