Chaos erupt in Nyakach after man attempts to sneak unidentified voting gadget

Voters lined up at Migori Primary school in Suna West Constituency to vote for their preferred candidate on April 18, 2022, during the ODM primaries. [Caleb Kingwara, Standard]

Chaos erupted at Urudi Primary in Nyakach over claims that a man sneaked in an unidentified electronic voting device to the polling centre as the ODM primaries continued in Kisumu.

Police were forced to fire in the air and lobbed tear gas canisters to disperse a rowdy mob that attempted to lynch the man after pulling him out of the polling centre.

The exercise was disrupted for minutes as police moved to restore calm as tensions flared.

Fredrick Ouma, an ODM member and a voter at the polling station told The Standard they suspected the man had ill motives.

Although he did not confirm seeing the man with any voting gadget, he claimed that they 'heard' he had entered the station with a voting device.

“Everyone who was inside started shouting at the man and claimed that he had a voting gadget and that is why we had to remove him from the polling station,” said Ouma.

Moments earlier, another man was stabbed by an irate mob after he was accused of bribing voters to cast their vote for a particular aspirant. The man was rushed to Pap Onditi hospital where he is undergoing treatment.

A senior police officer who is not authorized to speak to journalists told The Standard that the two incidences were under investigation and adding the suspect was being questioned.

Apart from the two incidents, the party primaries in Kisumu were largely peaceful as thousands turned up to cast their votes.

Voters expressed confidence in the paperless system that the party adopted.

ODM adopted technology and is relying on electronic voting gadgets to conduct the primaries. The party believes that the paperless system has improved credibility of the exercise. 

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