Wajir’s West constituency by-election started smoothly on Thursday but suffered a few hitches which were addressed by the electoral commission.
The Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC), responsible for conducting the election had a busy day in the office in some of the stations which were affected by technical issues.
Reports indicate that there was a mass failure of the electronic biometric kits in some stations which resulted in delays in the voting process.
IEBC officials were, however, able to sort the problem and the officials compensated the time by extending the voting period by one or two hours in the affected stations.
Jubilee Party candidate Ahmed Kolosh won the election after garnering 11,053 votes against Kanu's Sheikh Ibrahim who got 6,532 votes.
Tension was, however, high at Wajir Girls' High School and Habaswein polling stations on Thursday morning after the two candidates’ supporters clashed.
There were allegations of bribery in an attempt to influence voters but calm was restored and voting continued.
The ongoing drought in Wajir affected the number of voters as some of them who are pastoralists failed to show up because they had moved from their homes in search of food and pasture.
There was more than 60 per cent voter turnout with 17,606 votes having been cast.