It’s the moment of truth for two of Kenya’s presidential election front runners after millions of voters queued out to vote for a new president on Tuesday against the backdrop of an ailing economy, unemployment and corruption.
Some 22.1 million Kenyans have been registered to elect a president, National Assembly and Senate representatives, county governors and members of county assemblies.
Voters had stayed near polling stations overnight from Monday evening to Tuesday morning and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission officials are expected to announce the results after 24/48 hours.
Four contenders are gunning for the presidency, namely David Waihiga Mwaure of the Agano Party, Raila Odinga who leads the Orange Democratic Movement and a coalition of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance, deputy president William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance and George Wajackoyah of the Roots Party of Kenya.
The winner of the presidency must garner over 50 percent of the votes.
The two top dogs in the presidential race are 55-year-old deputy president William Ruto and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, 77 who is on his seventh attempt to win the presidency.
Mr Odinga voted in the Nairobi suburb of Kibra and was cheered on by his supporters.
Mr Ruto voted in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret.
Polling had lasted 11 hours, closing at 14:00 GMT although those late comers have been allowed to cast their paper ballot beyond the stipulated official end of voting.
On the eve of the vote the IEBC announced that due to hitches around the electronic fingerprint equipment, voting in local counties elections will not go ahead as originally planned on Tuesday.
Outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta who is constitutionally barred from running again at the end of his second five-year term declared his backing for his longstanding political foe Odinga.
Kenyatta 60, fell out with his depity Ruto at the beginning of his second mandate as president.
Parading himself as from Kenya’s grassroots Ruto, accuses his boss of trying to cement dynastic politics by refusing to back him, a reference to the Kenyatta and Odinga political hegemonies of the immediate post-independence era.
This was when matriarchs first president Jomo Kenyatta and his onetime ally Oginga Odinga dominated Kenyan politics in the 1960s.
The August 9, 2022 presidential as well as parliamentary elections are being seen as a watershed moment in Kenya.
Corruption, climate change, poverty and the torrid post-Covid economic hardships were the recurrent themes of the campaigning ahead of the polls which opened as early as 6am local time.
As a central theme in Kenya’s election campaign graft could make or break Ruto or Odinga as both men are fingered in graft, the former while still as deputy president, the latter as prime minister between 2008 and 2013.
From campaign speeches in Nakuru, to townhall meetings in Nairobi and Naivasha, Kenyan presidential hopefuls left journalists taking copious notes about what they intend doing to rein in corruption should they win the election and occupy state house.
Even outgoing president Kenyatta who is seeing through the end of his second five-year term cannot skirt the issues which have dogged his administration since taking over in 2013.
Kenyatta has been quoted severally as saying that the country loses over 2 billion Kenyan shillings to corruption on a daily basis and his successor has a mammoth task to clean the Augean stable.
Kenyatta long estranged from his deputy Ruto threw his lot behind perennial election underachiever Odinga 77 who he says was the best alternative to tackling corruption and maintaining stability in the economy.
Leading the line in diatribes against the scourge the veteran opposition leader who is a former prime minister (2008 to 2013) and his running mate Martha Karua have found themselves being forced to talk about official graft from one rally to another.
While in the central city of Murang’a, Odinga and Karau described corruption as Kenya’s worst enemy and promised that if elected they will ”slay the monster” and land the country’s resources in ”safer and surer hands”.
Even Ruto has found talking about the subject irresistible, promising during one of his rallies that a government he leads will make transparent official business with China and other major economies.
Ruto accused of graft with a recent poll claiming that his reputation for corruption has been suspect, claimed the scourge can make or break the image of a government depending on what was done to banish or consolidate it.
He has promised to give the judiciary Ruto and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) a free hand to shine a light on corrupt practices in the administration.
WN/as/APA