In hope or despair, Kenyans choose new president from familiar faces

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyans voted in national elections on Tuesday, forming long queues at ballot stations in the heartlands of presidential front-runners Raila Odinga and William Ruto, while elsewhere turnout was dampened by widespread voter apathy and frustration.

Kenya is holding presidential, legislative and local elections at a time when its citizens are growing increasingly exasperated at surging food prices and ingrained corruption.

But large numbers of young people have not registered to vote, electoral commission figures show, many are fed with widening inequality and a lack of trust in either side to fix the problems.

In some polling stations in the capital Nairobi, Garissa and Naivasha, lines were shorter than in previous elections, although turnout could pick up later. By noon, turnout was just over 30%, said Juliana Cherera, the electoral commission’s vice chairwoman.

“Kenyans are tired of waking up early and voting for a government that doesn’t care but we hope things will change,” said Joshua Nyanjui at a polling station in the town of Naivasha, around 90 km. northeast of the capital Nairobi.

Nyanjui said that in the last elections he queued for over four hours; this time it took under 30 minutes. Other voters in Naivasha complained of high prices and hunger.

Odinga and Ruto are familiar faces in Kenya. Ruto, 55, has been Kenyatta’s deputy for nine years, though the two have fallen out. Instead, Kenyatta endorsed veteran opposition leader Odinga, 77.

The final four opinion polls published last week put Odinga ahead by six to eight points. Ruto dismissed them as fake.

Kenya is a stable nation in a volatile region, a close Western ally that hosts regional headquarters for Alphabet, Visa and other international groups. However, less than 0.1% of Kenyans own more wealth than the bottom 99.9% combined, according to Oxfam.

The winner of the presidential vote will have to tackle soaring food, fuel and fertilizer prices, which have hit

Kenyans hard. Some voters wonder whether the next president will help.

Outgoing President Kenyatta has delivered an infrastructure boom, largely funded by foreign loans that will hang over his successors, but once said there was nothing he could do to tackle corruption.

Kenya’s traditional ethnic voting dynamics may also dampen turnout. The largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, have provided three out of Kenya’s four presidents. This time, there is no Kikuyu candidate, although both front-runners have Kikuyu deputies.

Ruto comes from the populous Kalenjin community, based in the Rift Valley, while Odinga’s Luo ethnic group have their heartland in western Kenya.