It was going to be a crazy fresh presidential election if the controversies that dodged the process to have it done last week were anything to go by. More worrying was whether or not it was to be carried out, until a quorum hitch at the Supreme Court gave it a lifeline.
Immediately, voters in Mombasa’s Bangladesh slums came up with an idea to bar the exercise at Jomvi polling centre.
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They sneaked in the station in the dead of night and smeared it with human waste, making it inhabitable for any would-be voter. The place remained disorganised as polling clerks were torn on who should clean up the mess.
But that was not the case in all the polling centres.
In Butula Constituency in Busia County, a voter, arriving at the centre as if to vote, grabbed the presidential ballot box, dashed onto a standby bodaboda and rode off as villagers cheered.
He was so fast that the security officers and polling officials were left in stitches. Several ballot boxes were snatched from polling centres and burnt on the road at a central location as youth chanted.
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Disrupting the elections was not reserved to the voters. In Migori County, an MP organised a football tournament at the constituency tallying centre on the D-Day.
Many believe he wanted to keep vigil at the centre and make it easy to contain the officials who would attempt to dispatch voting material to polling stations.
This was also the best way of monitoring ‘traitors,’ who took up the jobs of presiding officers and clerks in the process residents considered illegal.
The legislator called upon the people to come out in large numbers and participate in the one-day exercise where free food was in plenty.
This went on until the official poll closing time (5pm) when he called the tournament to a close, after a prize-giving session. No electoral material left the tallying centre.
As Migori played football, Ahero had blocked major roads that lead to polling centres and only the most daring motorists could drive.
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In fact, a man carried his bedding to a deserted road and spent the better part of the day sleeping on the hot tarmac and cursing one of the presidential candidates on the ballot.
In Kakamega County, enraged voters welded together a gate one polling station, preventing any movement into and out of the station.
The residents said the act was to secure the compound from hosting irregularities and illegalities, which they claimed would affect the performance of their children in the forthcoming Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams.
“We won’t allow an illegality to take place in our school. Of what moral sense will it be to our children?” posed Benson Kuya of Mumias West Constituency.
Some voters in Homa Bay County chose to celebrate President Uhuru Kenyatta’s birthday by preparing meals on the road.
Elated villagers donated plates, sufurias and cutlery to the demonstrators in the mock celebration which also doubled as a celebration for successfully barring any IEBC activities in the area.
“Now that we had been told there would be no elections, we decided to use the opportunity to celebrate,” said Appolo Amondi, a protestor.
A few kilometres away were others who formed a makeshift bar in the middle of the road, where they unleashed crates of beer to quench their thirst as most bars remained closed during the Election Day.
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Another bizarre act took place in Siaya County, where residents woke up to a dead dog hanging on the gate, and a bonfire right at the middle of the road leading to the polling station.
A dog hung at the gate of Karapul Primary School Photo: Phillip Orwa/Standard
Some said the dead dog was meant to pass a message to any resident who dared to get into the compound to either officiate the voting or participate in the process that their lives would end just like that of the hanging dog.
True to its intention, nobody turned up for the exercise for the entire day. Residents sat peacefully outside the gate to monitor anybody accessing the area.
At all the entrances into Kisumu City, youths created ‘toll stations’ where they ransacked all vehicles to check if motorists had polling material. Journalists’ vehicles and emergency response ambulances were not spared in the exercise.
Once vehicles are cleared, the youth removed big boulders placed on the roads. Some motorists had to part with few coins meant for refreshment for the brigade.
“We have intelligence that the IEBC may use even the hearse to transport ballot papers to the polling stations against our instructions. We do not want the votes,” said one of them.
As the anti-election field marshals went on with physically blocking the elections, the middle class was on social media, giving updates on their success.
They would update on how chicken and monkeys turned out to vote, complete with photos of low turnout in stations across the country. They termed the exercise a sham.
But the election drama was not going to be one-sided so those who turned out to vote did not sit back and watch.
In many polling stations, most of those who voted stayed on the queues even after voting to keep the impression that the turnout was great.
This was obviously calculated to counter the jokes by opposition followers gaining currency on social media.
While some took advantage of the subsidised fares from Nairobi to Central Kenya counties to go home and run personal affairs, others opted to visit and bond with relatives, friends and lovers. The enterprising kind converted it to a business trip.
“Larry travelled to inspect his coffee farm yet we know very well he is registered in Buruburu in Nairobi and not Murang’a,” said Maureen Njambi who was not happy of Larry’s adventures.
“He travelled on the eve of the election like any other voters but never cast his vote.”
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The matatu operators who ferried people for free from Nairobi would then turn around and double fares from “mashinani” to the city when they realised the number of passengers to Nairobi had gone up.
