Thika’s Uhuru tally improves despite hiccups.
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A section of Thika voters at the stadium polling centre lining up to vote on October 26 2017. |
Thika Town Constituency has registered a marginal
improvement in the number of votes cast in October for President Uhuru Kenyatta
as compared to his tally on the August 8 2017 despite a number of challenges.
In the final tally as announced by the Returning Officer
Geoffrey Gitobu at the constituency tallying centre, President Uhuru garnered
99,517 votes out of the total of 102,989 votes cast, equivalent to 98%. His closest
challenger NASA’s Raila Odinga garnered 1,243.
In the August polls, President Uhuru got 96,856 votes
(83.67%) with Raila garnering 18 525 votes (16%). This shows that the
president gained 2,661 votes more or 2.5% improvement.
The voter turnout in the just concluded election translated
to about 70%.
All the improvement was despite various challenges that kept
quite a number of the constituents away from their polling stations.
Heavy rains especially in the morning hours kept very many
people indoors, some of whom decided not to get out and vote. There was also a
marginal number who were turned away after their names went missing in the IEBC
register despite having voted in August.
Diaspora voters.
Thika being a cosmopolitan constituency, the diaspora vote
cannot be ignored. It is estimated that this vote base constitute between 20%
and 30% of the registered voters.
A survey of most polling stations predominant of diaspora
voters indicated that majority of these voters heeded to their leader’s call
for election boycott. However, there was quite a good number of these voters
who thought otherwise but were threatened by their peers of dire consequences
in case they went out to vote.
Our intel revealed that there was a strong warning against
anyone who defied these order with some spies sent around the polling centres
to check on anyone who dared enter the centres. It was also revealed that their
movements were closely monitored to ensure that no one’s whereabouts was
unexplained notwithstanding the physical checkup on people’s fingers for any
trait of the IEBC mark to indicate that one had voted.
Thika MP’s efforts.
All in all, the great performance can be attributed to a
multi-agency approach to mobilise for a big voter turnout. Other than the local
vernacular stations that kept on reminding the people to get out and vote on
Thursday, so many other individuals kept igniting this fire through the now
popular slogan “Kumira Kumira ta Thuraku!”
Area MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina had established a call centre first
to identify all those who failed to vote on August 8 and convince them
otherwise come October 26. He also provided various means of transport to the
elderly, the sick and all those who had been transferred from other counties to
enable them come and vote.
These efforts helped to bridge the gap left by the diaspora
voters who opted out of the polling centres.
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