There was a commotion at the Cheptarit polling station, Chesumei constituency in Nandi county after voters demanded area Senator Samson Cherargei and a group of aspirants to also queue to cast their vote.
This was during the United Democratic Alliance party nominations that were held across the country on Thursday.
The senator, who had arrived at a station in Chesumei constituency with his lieutenants tried to force his way in before angry voters shouted him down, trying to eject him out of the station.
Sensing defeat and danger, Cherargei who was in the company of a local MCA was forced to eat a humble and lined up behind the already agitated residents.
Agitated residents who said they had queued as early as 5 am opposed the move and asked the leaders to also queue arguing that they also had errands to attend to.
Cherargei, while speaking to the media, downplayed the incident saying he had no problem queuing.
“I think everybody is impatient, people are tired since they woke up so early today,” Nandi Senator Kiprotich Arap Cherargei said.
“I have no problem with queuing, in fact, we are queuing with other MPs and MCAs.”
Voters lamented saying it was not acceptable for the senator to just arrive and make his way into the polling station when they had been in the line since 6 am in the morning.
“Here we are supposed to be having four streams but we have only been given one stream. The congestion here is too high. A population of about 3,800 against one polling station is not possible, I have no problem queuing because I am a Kenyan like them” added the MCA aspirant
The Senator, however, raised concern that the centre deserved to have at least three polling stations owing to its huge number of voters.
He said the one polling station was not enough to carry out the exercise effectively given the large turnout.
“We need more ballot boxes, to enable smooth voting and accommodate all of the people who are in the local station,” a resident said.
“We are only 3800 at this polling station, so does that mean we will spend a whole day here?”
The Senator was later allowed to cast his votes at the station after confrontation ended.
