As of 9:30pm Nairobi time, polls have closed after a day of long lines, a few serious mishaps, but mostly peaceful and organized voting.
In summary, in Kibera:
- 68 Voice of Kibera reports
- 191 SMS messages received. (Quite a few duplicates, though some still left to approve and locate).
- 4 blog posts
- 2 videos produced
- 10+ Facebook Updates, including many photos.
Long queues formed as early as 4am, and while polls were due to open at 6am, some polls were ready, some were not.
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Traffic at olympic is enormous; 12 long lines all of which have stretched outside the gate with thousands of voters already queuing to vote yet its only 5 am 1 hour to voting time! “We have to vote by all means, this will ensure that we get in the credible leaders we have always wanted to elect.”
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The turnout of voters at Holy Trinity polling station is great and the queue is moving steadily as everyone awaits a chance to make his/her voice heard as to the leaders to elect. Voters came as early as 4am.
Queues remained long in some places throughout most of the day, due to some malfunction with the Biometric Voter Registration (BKR) kits, and mismatches with backup paper registrations. Also, the complexity of the new voting process (with president, senators, mps, etc etc) caused some confusion and delay.
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At Dc grounds polling station, voters are being pulled out of the line simply because there names are not in the registers but available in the IEBC system
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The Situation at Mashimoni squatters is well though the queues are long upto the bridge( around Gogo boys)but is moving slowly and no one is complaining so far.
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At DC grounds voters who turned out in large numbers,are complaining that given the six Elective positions to vote for,its time consuming and are many.
Kenyans, initially are not used to voting to such positions as provided in the new constitution.
The positions include: The Presidential,The senate,county Representative,the women representative and that for the Member of Parliament.
Many voters have resorted to voting only for one elective position as they check out.
The most serious disruption reported in Kibera was a fire this morning at Nyayo High-rise, Langatta.
The fire which started at around 9.30am has gutted about 30 houses at the border between Soweto east and Silanga. Property of unknown value has been destroyed.
Residents left the long queues and rushed to rescue their properties.
Everyone was out to vote. Mothers and the disabled were given speedier access. The very sick and even drunken came out. To much fanfare, Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga voted at Old Kibera Primary School. Police were present at all polling stations, ensuring voting was peaceful even under the pressure of long lines and malfunctions.
Overall, things went smoothly. Polls closed, some places remaining open for those in line at closing time, and vote counting has started. Businesses have reopened and Kibera and all of Kenya are settling in for the evening, awaiting the results.
The Map Kibera team had a very long day, and have turned in for the evening. They’ll be up again tomorrow to report as the results start coming in.
