Voting began at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) supervised polls in Banisa Constituency, Mandera County, at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday, with separate queues for men and women formed in line with local custom.
According to IEBC commissioner Hassan Noor Hassan, the constituency has roughly 32,702 registered voters as voting continues across 81 polling stations, among them Banisa Primary School and Doribbor Primary School in a two-man race between UDA’s Ahmed Maalim and UPA’s Nurdin Maalim.
By 9:00 a.m., the candidate from the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), Ahmed Maalim Hassan, arrived at Doribbor Primary School to cast his ballot. As he addressed the media, he said he was confident about his expectations.
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“As this is a by-election, I expect everything to go smoothly. We are in touch with the other stations, and it shows we are heading in the right direction,” he said. “We are expecting a win, early today, Inshallah.”
He was, however, quick to add that he would accept the results as announced by the IEBC.
“When we started this exercise, we only had two choices, we would either win or lose and I am expecting to win,” he said. “But if the result is otherwise, of course, this is a democratic exercise and I will accept any outcome of this result.”
Ahmed Maalim’s path to the ballot has not been without challenge: a petition accusing him of having dual citizenship almost derailed his candidacy before the High Court made a ruling on November 20, 2025. The Court cleared him to contest the by-election, dismissing the petition as “premature, speculative and legally misdirected.”
Despite his early arrival, the UDA aspirant was unable to vote due to technical and network connectivity issues that have plagued some polling stations in Banisa constituency since voting began, but he is expected to return later in the day to complete the process.
Following reports of technical glitches, IEBC Commissioner Hassan Noor later visited Doribbor polling station and assured voters that, despite the technical difficulties, alternative arrangements had been made to ensure everyone can vote before polling stations close at 6:00 p.m.
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“Nobody will be denied the opportunity to choose their leaders. If the fingerprints don’t work, then there are alternative methods of identification that can be done,” he told KBC Digital. “Our officers in the field, the presiding officers and the clerks, everyone is quite familiar with which steps to take as and when the system does not work properly.”
The Banisa by-election comes nearly two years after the constituency lost its Member of Parliament, the late MP, Kullow Maalim Hassan, who died from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident in Nairobi in March 2023.
Although the law requires a by-election within 90 days, the election was delayed because IEBC was not fully constituted, a situation that left Banisa without representation.
A previous report by KBC shows that many residents appear to have rallied behind Ahmed Maalim Hassan as the sole candidate to succeed his late brother as “they view him as best placed to continue the development agenda and complete stalled projects that followed the MP’s demise.”
