Strong message from voters that politicians should not ignore

Police officers guard ballot boxes from Embakasi East at a tallying centre at The East African School of Aviation on August 10, 2022. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

When I visited my polling station to cast my vote on August 9, I was quite impressed by the speed at which I was able to do so. The performance of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission might have been wanting on many fronts but compared to the 2017 elections, I think they improved quite a bit on the number of voting streams per station, making the exercise very efficient. As I left the station, therefore, it was difficult to tell whether the seemingly lower numbers were as a result of efficiency or voter apathy.

As voting closed and results began trickling in, it was becoming clear that voter turnout was not as impressive as many had expected. The numbers seen in many of the polling stations across the country were nothing close to the multitudes witnessed during the campaigns rallies.