Speed up Starehe votes recount, staff told

High Court deputy registrar Stephen Riechi wants the scrutiny and recount of Starehe constituency parliamentary votes concluded. Mr Riechi said the process would take long if the trend of scrutinising one or two ballot boxes per day continues. He urged his team to aim at scrutinising at least five ballot boxes a day.

The scrutiny began on Tuesday and by midday on Friday only five of 204 ballot boxes had been checked out. By mid-day, the petitioner Maina Kamanda maintained a lead with 1,667 against Bishop Margaret Wanjiru’s 430. The ballots being scrutinised are from City Primary School polling station, which has 12 ballot boxes. Mr Kamanda is challenging Bishop Wanjiru’s election as Starehe MP.

Wanjiru won the seat with a margin of 895 votes after she garnered 29,496 votes against Kamanda’s 28,601. The scrutiny continues on Monday.