National Assembly Majority leader and Kikuyu Member of Parliament Kimani Ichung’wah has defended the low voter turnout witnessed in some parts of Kiambu County as the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) grassroots elections continue across 20 counties.

Ichung’wah attributed the low turnout in some polling centres to delays in the delivery of digital voting gadgets, which caused the exercise to start late. 

He, however, assured party members that additional time would be added to compensate for the time lost and ensure fairness in the process.

This was after the UDA party grassroots elections in Kiambu County were marked by a low voter turnout and delays in delivery of voting materials.

Voting kicked off in the afternoon in many of the polling centers on January 10, 2026, despite the ruling party’s announcement that the exercise would start at 9 am countrywide.

In Ruiru constituency which is the most populous in the county, the exercise started after 1 pm with a low turnout experienced in most of the 33 polling centers.

Area MP Simon King’ara, however, blamed this on the delays in delivering materials and the fact that most people were still at work in the industrial town.

He also dismissed claims that the President William Ruto-led party is not popular in the region, maintaining that it still commands a huge following in the mount Kenya region.

One of the contesters for elective positions in Biashara ward and at the constituency level Joe Mundia concurred with the MP and said the Central Kenya region still supports UDA.

He appealed to the party leadership to avoid the organization bottlenecks witnessed during the grassroots elections.