Five cargo planes to deliver Kenya’s ballot papers

Five more planeloads of ballot papers are expected in the country from today as the electoral agency says its 'all systems go' for the August 8 polls.

On Tuesday night, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) received the first batch that arrived in Nairobi, comprising gubernatorial ballot papers for 41 counties.

The second batch is expected in the country today (Thursday) even as it emerged IEBC has laid out an elaborate plan on how the key materials will be distributed across all the 290 constituencies.

The first to arrive were delivered by Dubai based printer Al Ghurair using Saudi Air cargo plane that landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) 7pm, on Tuesday evening.

Those for Siaya, Mombasa, Wajir, Nairobi, Nyeri and Baringo are expected alongside those for Woman Representative and Senate as from Thursday.

"We will be having deliveries every two days; the next batch is arriving on Thursday, then Saturday," IEBC chief electoral officer Ezra Chiloba said.

After the gubernatorial election materials, the commission says it expects those for the other seats to be delivered within the next two weeks.

"From the deliveries we are expecting, we are going to get ones for woman rep, senator and MCA. So the elections are here and we want to assure Kenyans that we are going to have a free and fair exercise," IEBC Vice chair Connie Maina told journalists at JKIA after overseeing the delivery.

The commission expects to receive all the ballot papers and poll registers by 2nd of August before beginning the nationwide distribution.