Prisoners at Kibos maximum prison cast votes for president

More than 70 registered prisoners in Kibos Maximum Security Prison in Kisumu are casting their votes to elect the President.

Azimio Presidential candidate Raila Odinga, William Ruto of UDA, Agano party's Wahiga Mwaure and George Wajackoya of Roots party are on the ballot to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta.  

Kibos Maximum Security Prison B polling station presiding officer Dan Odhiambo said the voting process started at 7am.

He noted with concern the KIEMS kit failures which delayed the voting process.

Odhiambo also cited three voters who were unable to cast their votes after being transferred from other prisons where they were registered to Kibos Maximum Security Prison. 

Officer in-charge Kibos Maximum Security Prison Senior superintendent Beverly Lung'atso said out of 823 prisoners about 79 are registered voters.

Lung’atso pointed out that the registered voters will only vote for the president.

“We have cases where some of the registered voters in the prison cannot vote because they were registered elsewhere before being transferred to the prison,” she said.

The prison boss added that some prisoners were also registered to vote at Kibos primary school polling station but cannot be allowed to vote outside the prison facility.

She said they have made the efforts to reach out to Muhoroni constituency Returning officer Samson Maroo on how best to help the voters to cast their votes.

Lung’atso noted with concern the KIEMS kit failure which has affected the voter identification of the registered voters.

At the Kibos Medium Prison B there was confusion as there was delays in voting for inmates.

Presiding officer Evans Owili said they have 15 registered voters at the polling station but their details are neither in the KIEMs kit nor the manual register.

He said a random search using the inmates IDs showed their details were coming up elsewhere, some at Kisumu main prison, Homa Bay and even Kolenyo.

"Most of their details are coming from the areas they were, before being arrested," Owili said.

The official said they are waiting for the Muhoroni constituency county returning officer to give them a way forward.

"Otherwise we will stay here until 5pm when voting closes," he said.

Prisoners however claim that their details were captured by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

Prison in charge Charles Otuoro said prisoners have not had the opportunity to vote because their names are not appearing in the KIEMs kit.

"We are waiting for the IEBC to give clarification to what happened because they were registered here and their team also came and verified the same.

“The KIEMs kit is not capturing any of them and even the manual register," he said.