Youth storm Kakamega IEBC office, protest delayed elections

Kakamega youths stormed IEBC office to protest the decision by commission chairman Wafula Chebukati to indefinitely suspend the gubernatorial elections.

County IEBC returning officer Joseph Ayatta on Thursday received the complaints from the youth and promised to escalate the same to the national office.

Last week, Chebukati suspended the elections for Kakamega and Mombasa citing harassment and profiling of IEBC staff.

The youths said Kakamega is a peaceful county and has no issues with IEBC officials so there are no reasons to delay the elections.

Emmanuel Makokha of the Azimio Youth Movement said residents are losing patience because they want to shed off the election fever and start enjoying better service delivery from their leaders.

"We are here today to plead with IEBC or rather demand that the gubernatorial elections for this county should be held on August 23 as had been scheduled before," Makokha said.

"There is no single IEBC official who has been harassed or profile in Kakamega because our people are very peaceful and there is no cause for panic.

"We are sad that we remain in an election mood whereas other counties are back to key nation-building activities. We are ready for this election and we can't wait any longer."

Abukaka wa Abukaka, another youth leader urged IEBC not to postpone the elections saying such a decision is unfair and holds the voters at ransom.

"We call upon Chebukati to resign if he is unable to perform his constitutional duty of conducting free and credible elections," Abukaka said.

"We are reading a lot of mischief in this decision and we are asking him not to test our patience. We shall be at the polling stations on Tuesday to elect our leaders."

The youth held peaceful demonstrations within Kakamega town to protest the move to suspend the elections.

(Edited by Tabnacha O)