The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has started final preparations for the upcoming by-elections in Malava and Kisa East ward in Kakamega county.
The commission trained support elections trainers for Malava constituency between Thursday and Sunday.
Kakamega county IEBC co-ordinator Joseph Ayata said training for presiding and deputy presiding officers for Malava MP and Khisa East MCA by-election will be rolled out on Tuesday.
“Training of polling, counting, queuing and tallying clerks will take place once the presiding and deputy presiding officers have been trained,” he said.
“The campaigns are going on peacefully and we thank our candidates for maintaining law and order.”
Ayata said the lists of accredited voter education providers, election observers, media representatives and election monitors to participate in the ongoing and upcoming electoral activities was ready for inspection.
The by-elections, together with 21 others across the country are scheduled for November 27.
The Malava by-election was occasioned by the death of MP Malulu Injendi early this year, while the Kisa East ward seat fell vacant after then MCA Stephen Malaba was attacked and killed last year.
Meanwhile, candidates have now shifted gears in their campaigns by avoiding holding huge rallies and instead addressing smaller crowds in villages as vote hunting hits homestretch.
IEBC cleared nine candidates for the Malava race but lawyer Edgar Busiega of DCP and Joab Manyasi of DNA have since dropped out of the race in favour of DAP-K’s Seth Panyako in the interest of united opposition. Meanwhile, Jason Shivakale of EPP pulled out of the race last week in favour of UDA’s David Ndakwa.
Other candidates in the race are Wilberforce Tuvei of Kenya Moja Movement, James Angatia (ARC), George Ngaira (PDU) and Benjamin Nalwa (NOPEU).
The campaigns in Malava have exposed weaknesses in the party loyalties, with key figures defying their sponsoring parties to campaign for candidates of opposing formations.
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