Starehe Constituency deputy returning officer has been arrested over three missing ballot boxes even as three other suspects were seized in possession of marked election materials suspected to have been a vote rigging plot.
The leaders linked the missing ballot boxes to rigging.
Video shared by Ministry of Industrialization Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) David Osiany show a man being questioned over ballot papers they claim were in his possession.
The seized ballot papers suspected to be fake despite having electoral body’s stamp comprised Starehe MP seat, Nairobi governorship, presidential ballot papers among others.
Azimio One Kenya Coalition leaders led by coalition Secretary Junet Mohamed who has successfully retained the Suna East Parliamentary seat said the credibility of the election is in question.
“These papers which have been brought here are not only papers for Senator and MP. There are papers from presidential elections, senatorial, gubernatorial, MCAs and Women Representative. Now this dents the credibility of this election.” Junet said.
He added: “If ballot papers can be carried in a bag, someone walks with them here in town for two good days, it is shocking. What kind of election is this? How did this person access these ballot papers? You remember how ballot papers arrived in this country through orthodox means at the airport, some commissioners even said they are not aware of the arrival of the ballot papers then someone is walking with them here in Nairobi. This should be happening in all parts of Kenya. If someone can access ballot papers here in Nairobi, what prevents them accessing them in rural areas where there is no proper security?” Junet posed.
On the other hand, Youth Affairs CAS Rachel Shebesh challenged security officers to be on alert to avert such incidences.
“We are also worried about the police and we say the police should not be compromised. So everything that is happening now it is not that we do not follow procedure, we followed all the procedures that IEBC has laid out. Unfortunately, despite giving that indication that something is going on, it took the initiative of our own supporters to actually force these suspects to be brought here.” Shebesh said.
According to Osiany, some of the papers were marked, others stamped while others are unmarked.
“We have arrested anomalies in Starehe. Unmarked and pre-marked ballot papers, yet stamped already. Remember, ballot papers were to be stamped during issuance. Unfortunate,” he wrote on Facebook.
Osiany was flanked by a group of Azimio leaders including ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna, outgoing Kitui governor Charity Ngilu, and Nairobi Woman Rep Esther Passaris among others.
ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna said both marked and unmarked ballot papers were recovered from suspects in Starehe Constituency.
Other leaders present were ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, Philip Kaloki, Reuben Ndolo, Maina Kamanda, Racheal Shebesh and Jubilee Starehe parliamentary candidate Amos Mwago who stormed the Starehe Constituency tallying centre at Jamhuri High School on yesterday evening and demanded that the election results be released.
However, preliminary provisional results showed that Amos Mwago is leading in the Starehe parliamentary race with 51,000 votes followed by United Democratic Alliance’s Simon Mbugua who has garnered 35,000 votes.