Kenya general election 2017

Ferdinand Omondi/BBC

Kenya's Makonde community will be voting for the first time when they visit the polling booths in tomorrow's general election.

Originally from Mozambique and south-eastern Tanzania, the Makonde ethnic group are believed to have migrated to Kenya in the 1930s to work on sisal plantations.

Makongeni village, where they live in south-eastern Kenya, is in fact derived from the Swahili word makonge, which means sisal.

Their exact numbers are not known, but an estimated population of 20,000 Makonde live in Kenya.

They were only recognised as citizens earlier this year when, after countless petitions, President Uhuru Kenyatta finally ordered they be issued with identity cards.

Ferdinand Omondi/BBC

Some 2,000 received IDs, a must-have document before registering to vote.

Before that point the Kenyan government never considered them to be Kenyans, rather immigrants.

Abdinoor Aden/BBC

Extra security measures have been taken to minimise the possibility of violence disrupting tomorrow's general election, electoral commission CEO Ezra Chiloba has told the BBC.

Polling staff will be accompanied by security officials and polling stations will be heavily guarded to enable voters to exercise their democratic rights, he added.

Asked if voters will be relocated from areas where there are security fears, Mr Chiloba replied that "any changes will depend with the security situation".

Comission chairman Wafula Chebukati has asked his staff to be honest and professional to ensure that the elections are credible.

Abdinoor Aden/BBC

With Kenya due to hold a general election tomorrow, people have been using Twitter to raise some of the issues that they see as threatening to the credibility of the tightly contested poll.

They are most concerned about an alleged plan to shut the internet on election day.

People have been using the hashtag #hourstokeinternetshutdown to oppose it and to share ways to go around what they anticipate as a block of some websites and social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Some have been sharing their plans to download Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications to enable then to bypass limitations to some websites:

Others have been allaying the these fears:

Another hashtag being used is #Ikonetwork (there's network) to fact check a list put out by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which says that more than 11,000 (25%) of polling stations are in areas without the 3G and 4G network coverage needed to allow a quick transmission of results.

These areas are said to be covered by 2G network and can only facilitate the fast transmission of text data.

The commission has ordered its presiding officers in these areas to move, after results have been announced, to areas where they can get the necessary network coverage to send the official scanned copy of the results to the nominated tallying centre for aggregation.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati explained the process to a local TV station:

"I don't have a voting card," one young voter tells our reporter.

"I'm not interested," says another 18-year-old.

How can Kenya's political leaders convince young people that their vote matters?

More highlights from BBC Newsday.

Reuters

"A Murder and an Exodus - Another Election in Kenya" - that's the headline in a New York Times article on Kenya's tightly contested general election.

"Since the country’s near-death experience a decade ago, Kenyans live in fear of their society’s capacity for violence," author Michela Wrong writes.

"It’s a potential at odds with the nation’s often Disney-fied image as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most popular tourist destinations and most vibrant economies," adds Wrong, the author “It’s Our Turn to Eat. The story of a Kenyan Whistleblower.”

The UK-based Guardian newspaper also strikes a pessimistic note about Tuesday's election - a close contest between Presdent Uhuru Kenyatta and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.

The Guardian

Jason Burke, irs corresponent in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, writes:

"The country is braced for widespread unrest whoever wins, after a campaign marred by hundreds of violent incidents - including the murder of a high-profile election official – issues with new voting technology and widespread concerns about fraud."

As for Quartz Africa, it focuses on the technological challenges facing election officials.

Quartz Africa

"There is some irony that Kenya’s elections may be delayed due to the limitations of its mobile communications technology," Lily Kuo writes.

"Over the last decade East Africa’s largest economy has positioned itself as a global leader in mobile technology thanks to the leadership of Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money platform and Nairobi has become one of Africa’s leading tech hubs," she adds.

And under the headline "Calm before the Kenyan election", the BBC's Alastair Leithead writes from Nairobi:

"The success of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) computerised voting system is key to the process being considered free and fair.

"If it fails - as it did in 2013 - the votes will be counted manually, and in a country where vote-rigging has been alleged in the past, the loser will no doubt challenge the result," Leithead writes.

"In 2013, Raila Odinga turned to the courts claiming electoral fraud, and lost. This time - his fourth and probably last attempt to become president - he may turn to the streets if he considers the election to have been stolen," he adds.

You can read his full article here.

As Kenyans prepare to go to the polls in tomorrow's general election, the country's voting processes are under scrutiny.

Can developments in tech, specialised training as well as testing prevent a repeat of the events of 2013, when there were a large number of rejected ballot papers?

That's the hope of Ezra Chiloba, the chief election officer for Kenya's electoral commission, who spoke to BBC Newsday's Alan Kasujja.

More highlights from BBC Newsday.