This year’s election is, without a doubt, one of the most unique in Kenya’s post-independence history. For one, there were literally no queues no matter which direction one looked!

Compared to the first election of 2017 or all the others between then and 1992, there were no snaking lines of voters waiting to be ushered into schools, which is bad optics for newspapers and television stations which had grown used to showing the long lines coiling around voting centres every election year.

Long queues mean that voters are energised.

Kenyan elections are adrenaline-driven. Energised voters show that the people are connected with the leaders they want to put in office or they have a strong desire to show someone the door. That fire in the belly which made the election season special, will be sourly missed this year.

That is number one.

Number two; this is likely to go down in history as the election with the lowest voter turnout. According to the electoral commission, only 30 per cent of voters nationally had cast their ballots by noon yesterday… and there were no lines at the time of the announcement. This is going to cause stomach ulcers to candidates who had banked on large turnout. Smaller numbers will mean that victory margins will be razor thin and a miscalculation in a candidate’s stronghold will be enough to toss up the results.

What does a low-voter turn mean? That we could have all the results in by tomorrow. If that happens, this will be the shortest voting cycle in Kenya’s history, so get ready to pop the champagne. Or, cry a river.

That is number two.

Number three; there was a markedly larger number of voting stations, or polling stations, at every polling centre. As a result, a voter could walk into a polling station and in ten minutes flat, vote and walk out. Just like that. I think this is disappointing especially for voters used to “making sacrifices” by standing in the sun to elected candidates of their choice. Now, it will no longer fly for a voter to tell a leader how he or she braved the sun or rain to put them in office.

Whether the short time it took voters to tick the boxes is a good or bad thing is a subject we can prosecute at length, especially because it took the umph out of the process.

Number four. Kenyans who voted in areas with efficient KIEMS kits will acknowledge how technology has transformed this year’s election. For once, voters did not need to ask where they were meant to queue. By just sending an SMS to 7000, or logging on to the verify.iebc portal, one would immediately know the number of their polling station. No need to check alphabet as used to happen five years ago, or queuing on the wrong line only to learn your mistake once inside the polling area.

Longest ballot

That for me was a big highlight although there were complaints in areas where the kits did not work efficiently for one reason or the other.

And once you had identified your polling station, you just needed to show up with your identity card, place a finger on the lighted area of the kit and voila! Your image would pop up, qualifying you to get six ballot papers. For me, voting in Nairobi, the longest ballot paper was for Senate candidates. There were 14 of them, one more than for MCAs. And the most shocking thing? Only three candidates were vying for MP, which says something about how power and attention has shifted from that once-powerful seat.