Kenya elections enters in tight presidential race between Raila Odinga and William Ruto

• Voting in Kenya’s presidential election has been peaceful and smooth.
• Just over 30% of the 22 million registered voters had voted by noon local time (09:00 GMT).
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• Raila Odinga and William Ruto are the frontrunners for the presidency.

Despite some delays and problems with the electronic voting equipment in some parts of the country, voting in Kenya has been generally peaceful and smooth.

This election comes after a heated campaign dominated by debates over living costs, unemployment, and corruption.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and current Deputy President William Ruto are the frontrunners for the presidency.

After a falling out with Mr Ruto, outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta is supporting his former foe Mr Odinga.

According to the electoral commission, just over 30% of the 22 million registered voters had voted by noon local time (09:00 GMT).

According to a top election official in Kenya’s central region of Nyeri, turnout has been low in that region compared to 2017.

When Mr Odinga went to vote in Kibra, one of his strongholds in Nairobi, he was surrounded by supporters.

He did not speak to the media, but his wife, Ida Odinga, stated that he is “optimistic about the election.”

Mr Ruto pledged to accept the election result when he voted in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret.

“I think for the first time in the history of multi-party democracy in Kenya, all the candidates have undertaken that they will accept the outcome of the results,” he said

A dispute over election results in 2007 sparked weeks of violence, killing an estimated 1,200 people and forcing 600,000 people to flee their homes.

Early morning voters at a polling station in a primary school in Nairobi’s Westlands area were irritated on Tuesday.

They were barred from entering the school’s compound for 90 minutes.

The reason for the delay was unknown, and some protesters began chanting, “We want to vote!”

“I was here very early. It’s been disappointing that we got here early and had to wait for a long time,” voter Alex Kipchoge.

However, once voting began, the process went smoothly.

There have also been reports of delays in Mombasa’s coastal area and parts of the country’s north-east.

There have been some reports of electronic fingerprint equipment used to identify voters failing. However, the electoral commission claims that only 200 of the more than 46,000 ballots have been counted.

The polls will be open for 11 hours and will close at 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT). Anyone who is still in line at the end of the voting period will be allowed to vote.

There are several other elections for parliament and local government taking place at the same time, and a mix-up of ballot papers in some areas for some of those votes on the eve of the poll has raised new concerns about the general election’s organization.

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