On Monday, August 8th, hours before elections begin, a rowdy mob in Igambang’ombe, Tharaka Nithi county destroyed IEBC election materials.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was transporting the materials to the tallying center after which they would all be disbursed to various polling stations.
The materials were intercepted by residents who protested and raised an alarm after realizing some of the materials were marked as belonging to a constituency in Garissa county.
A video has since gone viral showing the materials lying on the ground and police officers standing next to them.
“The materials that were intercepted are ones which were in deficit which we had requested from Nairobi. They had arrived this morning and were headed to Tharaka Nithi tallying center from where the returning and presiding officers would transfer them to the polling stations,” said an IEBC official.
The incident is not the first as various reports have revealed that there are other counties having problems as the IEBC races against time to distribute election materials to various counties.
There are also concerns arising from the mix-up of materials which has seen the gubernatorial position in Kakamega and Mombasa counties be postponed a few hours to elections.
In the coastal region, there was confusion when some of the ballot papers for Kilifi County were found in Mombasa.
Kakamega, Mombasa governor elections suspended
A video shared by a local media house showed IEBC officials unpacking the materials which had been mixed up.
“These materials are meant for Kilifi County, yet we are in Mombasa,” an IEBC official confirmed.