Duale fears many hungry voters in northern Kenya did not vote

Garissa Township MP Aden Duale on Tuesday said he feared the drought in northern Kenya would cause low voter turnout.

Duale said it may discourage voters from travelling long distances to vote.

He, however, appealed to the electorate to spare some time and exercise their democratic right, the drought situation notwithstanding.

“We should not forget this is one day exercise that only comes once after every five years. Let us all seize the opportunity and vote and for our preferred candidates,” he said at the Garissa Library moments after voting.

Duale, who is seeking a fourth term through the UDA party ticket, said he was also confident of winning, adding that his development track in 15 years gives him an upper hand against his opponents.

“To my opponents, your days are numbered. In fact, it's only a matter of few hours before the people of Garissa pronounce themselves very loudly through the ballot,” said Duale.

He added, “It is the people who install and remove governments. It is the people who install and remove leaders. It is not a group of people,” he said.

Duale took issue with the few hitches that were experienced, among them failure by the Kiems kit to identify the fingerprints of some voters, especially the elderly.

The former Majority leader sponsored a Bill to ensure there is a complementary mechanism to ensure that in case one's fingerprint is not picked,  they can use their national ID card.

“My assessment of the election today is that there are a few challenges but by and large, everything is going on very well. There are a number of people, especially the elderly, whose thumps cannot be captured by the Kiems kit.

"I want to urge the presiding officers to use the other alternatives where they will swipe the ID card and finally where they will key in the number of the ID card number in the machine,” Duale said.

A spot check in some of the polling stations showed that while some queues were moving very fast, some were very slow.

Duale urged the electorate to maintain peace before, during and after the polls.

“Having participated in elections since 2007, I want to urge the people to maintain peace. They vote, go home and leave the other work to the IEBC, who are component enough to collect, collate add the voters and give a very fair assessment of the verdict of the people,” said Duale.

He exuded confidence that the William Ruto led-Kenya Kwanza will not only win the presidency but also win a majority of the seats across the region and country at large.