By LUKE A and FELIX O @ THESTARKENYA</strong
Close to 800,000 Kenyans went to their respective polling stations on August 8, only to vote for their preferred presidential candidate, ignoring the other seats, IEBC results suggest. This is an impossibility under the law.
An analysis of IEBC’s countrywide election results indicate that 15,863,193 people participated in the presidential elections as compared to 15,085,122 for governor.
This means that 778,081 people, translating into 4.1 per cent of the registered voters, participated only in presidential polls, over and above those who took part in governor polls. President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner, having garnered 54.27 per cent of the votes.
According to IEBC regulations, a voter is strictly to be issued six stamped ballot papers, and has to cast all of them, even if they decide to spoil the ballot for a particular seat.
The revelations are likely to bolster opposition claims that the polls, endorsed by the international community as free and fair, were flawed.
Yesterday, the opposition announced its intention to challenge the presidential results at the Superme Court, saying it believes them to be a product of a hacked computer system.
“We have now decided to move to the Supreme Court and lay before the world the making of computer-generated leadership,” Raila said.
Earlier, the opposition had ruled out going to the Supreme Court.
The revelations from IEBC’s own data are similar to 2013 claims that two million voters allegedly voted only for the President and left without casting a vote for any of the remaining elective seats.
Raila, ahead of last week polls, opposed the award of the ballot paper printing tender to Dubai firm Al Ghurair over fears it would print extra presidential papers which he claimed were to be used to rig in Uhuru.
The IEBC, however, went ahead to contract Al Ghurair after a protracted court battle with the opposition. The commission clarified that only 1.2 million extra presidential papers were printed and promised to account for them after the polls.
In one of the shocking cases, the IEBC portal indicates that in Kirinyaga county for instance, 296,392 more people voted for President than for Senator.
The same trend was replicated in Embu, one of Uhuru’s strongholds, where 200,021 more people voted for President than senator.
The trend, upon deeper interrogation of the results posted on the IEBC portal, played out in almost all counties with a constant range of between 4,000 and 19,000 people voting for President only and not any of the remaining five positions.
In Kilifi, 13,494 people walked into polling stations on Tuesday last week, voted for President and left without casting a vote for governor.
In NASA co-principal Moses Wetangula’s Bungoma turf, IEBC figures indicate that 12,916 voters cast their ballot for President and not any other seat.
Kakamega also had 17,066 people voting for the President position alone, while in Kisii, 16,652 people did not vote for the governor position but voted for the presidential candidates.
In the neighboring Nyamira county, 10,023 only voted for the presidential candidates.
President Uhuru’s Kiambu backyard had 24,676 people casting their votes for the President only.
The other Mt Kenya counties of Murang’a, Kirinyaga and Nyandarua had 5,586, 6,751 and 4,296 respectively voting only for President.
In Raila’s Luo Nyanza support base, the same pattern was witnessed with Migori leading with number of voters participating in the presidential election at 18,848.
Kisumu had 15,922, Homa Bay 14,816, while Siaya recorded 9,912, according to the official results posted by the IEBC.
The IEBC portal in other glaring inconsistencies that erode the credibility of the results posted some Forms 34A with conflicting figures from those keyed in the portal.
For instance, Kisian polling station in Kisumu West constituency, a known Raila stronghold, he scored zero according to the Form 34A posted by IEBC in its online portal.
At the same polling station located at Central Kisumu ward, independent candidate Joseph Nyagah leads the eight presidential candidates with 516 votes followed by Uhuru, who managed a paltry nine votes.
Prior to the polls, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati clarified that in case of inconsistency between the keyed in results and results captured in Form 34A, the results in Form 34A takes precedence.
“There is a possibility of inconsistencies between the keyed in results transmitted by officers and the scanned forms transmitted. In such cases, the commission has decided that the result in the scanned forms takes precedent,” clarified Chebukati in a communication dated August 4.
At Marinyin Primary School 01 polling station in Bomet county, Konoin constituency, the commission has in its portal a blank Form 34A.
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