A 33-year-old man collapsed and died as he queued to vote in the historic event on Monday at the St Mathews Hardy polling station, Karen, Nairobi.
Police and doctors at the Karen Hospital said the man was pronounced dead at the hospital Monday morning.
“He had died by the time they brought him to the hospital,” said a doctor at the hospital in reference to the Good Samaritans who rushed him there.
The victim had been queuing for more than two hours when he suddenly collapsed and died.
Nairobi Area Police boss Benson Kibue said they were called and informed of the death.
“He died and we are informed he was sickly but let us wait for a postmortem report on the body,” said Kibue.
Queues were extremely long and many voters had to wait for up to five hours to cast their votes.
The process was worsened by failure by some of the IEBC machines to work until when top officials directed for the use of the poll book.
Kibue added they arrested two suspects in two separate incidents for causing disturbance and impersonating.
The first person was arrested in Pumwani area for impersonating a General Service Unit officer. Kibue said the man had been harassing voters at a polling station when police were alerted.
A second man was arrested while illegally wearing a jacket meant for Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission officials.
Kibue said the suspect had been guiding voters outside a polling station when he was arrested.
“He claimed to be a transporter for IEBC but we are investigating the claims,” said the police boss.
Kibue said Nairobi experienced few incidents and added more than 8,000 police officers had been deployed to cover the area alone.
source:standard Digital
