High turnout witnessed in ODM nominations in Kajiado as voters praise party for going digital
Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has witnessed a high turnout among voters in the ongoing nominations process in various parts of Kajiado county.
An observation by People Daily at various polling stations in both Kajiado North and East constituencies saw a high number of the party members turn up for the voting exercise with reports saying that some of them started streaming to the polling centres as early as 5 am.
The exercise kicked off smoothly at 8 am in most polling stations with a majority of voters leaving upon voting.
Jubilant voters and aspirants lauded the party for opting to use the members register instead of the IEBC's 2017 register saying the move will lock out interference from the non-party members during the exercise.
"We are so happy because this time around it is the party member who took part in the voting exercise. Today we have witnessed an orderly voting process because the voters are loyal," Kakuta Maimai said.
Voters also noted that the electronic voting system is ideal for curbing spoilt votes which is common with the manual system of voting.
"Verification of members' existence in the ODM register is the very first that happens when you go to vote. The agents have both manual and digital registers which they use to confirm the voter's membership in the party. Once a voter's membership is confirmed, he/she will only need his ID to vote, a process that takes less than a minute," John Muka said.
The verification process saw the voting officers peacefully urge non-party members who had turned up for the exercise to leave the polling centres.
Kajiado East MP position had attracted three aspirants seeking to replace Peris Tobiko who has since lost her bid to become the first woman governor of Kajiado under the UDA ticket after being trounced by Kajiado South Mp Katoo Ole Metito in the nominations.
On the other hand, the Kajiado North constituency had attracted five Mp aspirants; Solomon Kinyanjui, George Yogo, Leposo Musengi, Samson Moindi and Laurence Mbirachi.
The five are seeking to replace Joseph Manje who has joined hands with former governor David Nkedianye as his running mate for the governor position.
