Ballot boxes from Mpeketoni and Witu divisions in Lamu county had to be transported under heavy security amid fears of an al Shabaab attack on the Lamu-Mpeketoni route.
Unconfirmed reports indicated the militants were planning to attack and hijack a convoy transporting ballot boxes on the route.
IEBC staff spent Thursday night at an undisclosed location with the boxes.
They were transported to the tallying centre on Friday morning with KDF and regular police as part of the convoy.
A presiding officer who declined to be named said they had information the route was unsafe.
“They told us we couldn’t go since they had informationthe route was bad as al Shabaab were waiting for us. We slept at some school compound that was used as an assembly point for all election staff, then we came with KDF in the morning,” the official said.
Votes at 15 out of the 45 polling stations in Lamu East sub-county are yet to be tallied owing to transport and security challenges.
There were difficulties in the ferrying of ballot boxes and papers to the constituency tallying centre on Faza Island.
Area returning officer Japheth Omara said the 15 centres are in Basuba and Kiunga, where al Shabaab militants have carried out many terror attacks.
Omara said the challenges in these areas saw a chopper dispatched to transport IEBC staff and election materials.
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