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There are 11,155 polling stations lacking mobile network


A quarter of polling stations in the country do not have adequate mobile network coverage for transmission of election results

IEBC has gazetted 40,883 polling stations which will be used by 19 million voters in 290 constituencies across the country.

But 11,155 of them are without 4G or 3G, according to electoral agency.

Chairman of the IEBC Wafula Chebukati, however, says that the commission has taken appropriate measures to enhance transmission rate in the polling stations.

One of the measures taken by the commission is instructing presiding officers to move to where there is network coverage for purposes of sending results.

SATELLITE DEVICES

The commission says that it has also provided satellite devices in all 290 constituency tallying centres across the country.

The network coverage is supported by Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom.

The affected areas are spread across 45 counties. The county with the most affected polling station is Kisii with 922 polling stations, Murang’a with 912 polling stations, Homabay with 892 polling stations and Busia with 641 polling stations.

Nairobi is among the counties that have not been affected.

The polling station has assumed additional significance in the 2017 election after the county of appeal ruled two weeks ago that results announced at the constituency level shall be final, stripping IEBC of power to alter the results at the national tallying centre.

Results signed by agents at the polling stations will be relayed to the constituency tallying centres before the final announcement is made by the constituency returning officers.

STRONGHOLDS

Areas considered Opposition strongholds have more polling stations than perceived Jubilee zones. This according to a list of polling stations published by IEBC.

Coast, Western, Nyanza and Ukambani regions, which are seen as friendly to the National Super Alliance (NASA), have a total of 17,000 polling stations compared to Mt Kenya and Rift Valley regions, which have 15,000 polling stations.

According to the IEBC list, Starehe Constituency in Nairobi has the highest number of polling stations (253), followed by Ruiru (240) and Mbooni in Makueni County (238). Other constituencies with a high number of polling stations are Alego Usonga (206), Chuka/Igambang’ombe (225), Kinango (212), Mwingi North (223) and Manyatta (226).

Those with the lowest include Lamu East (45) and Banissa in Mandera County (53). The list was published 34 days to the election, and just days after NASA claimed that IEBC had set up secret polling stations to help the ruling Jubilee party win the poll.