Thousands turn up at polling stations to vote for Kenya's next leader

Kenya

Thousands of Kenyan voters turned up at the 40,883 polling stations in 290 constituencies and 47 counties early Tuesday morning to cast their ballots in the 2017 general elections.

Some of the voters were at the polling stations as early as midnight in order to vote early at 6am local time when the polls opened.

Long queues were formed when voting started. The process witnessed the use of the newly introduced biometric verification machines which some voters say it made the process longer.

“The system is different from the 2007 and the 2013 system. They have to scan your finger and actually they got my details after scanning the third finger. That is when they got my details and my photo. They had to finish with me before letting someone else in,” Tom Bunde, a voter said.

Another voter, Simon Arp Rono, told Africanews that he was impressed by the turn out.

“I have been voting in this place but I have never seen such a crowd turnout ever since; the turnout is very huge; people wanted to exercise their right to vote,” he said.

The voting process is running smoothly in many parts of the country, but some parts have experienced a few technical issues that caused delay in the process.

Jobenpha Community School we understand kits have broken down.we have stood here for an hour now without activity. #KenyaDecides Send help.

— TOO AWESOME (@HipJonesHop) August 8, 2017

The electoral commission acknowledged the problem and said it is addressing the concerns.

We are aware that a few polling stations opened late. We are addressing these concerns. Will ensure that no single voter is disenfranchised

— IEBC (@IEBCKenya) August 8, 2017

Voting ends at 5pm local time and 19.6 million voters are expected to cast their ballots.

Click here for all the election news on our Africa Elections page