The elections for leadership roles in the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) in Homa Bay were unexpectedly cut short when unknown attackers burst into the polling place and threw the ballot boxes and papers into the fire, thus causing chaos to the voting process and raising very serious doubts about the electoral integrity in the teachers’ union.
This dramatic incident at the Tom Mboya University polling center took place on Monday when a large number of teachers overshadowed the branch elections. The initial process, it was reported, started on time, but soon a stream of voters began to have difficulty in finding space where they could cast their votes quietly.
Candidates and trade union officials who were present reported that the situation got worse very quickly at noon when some masked men entered the polling place, brought out the ballot boxes, and burned them down, thus forcing the election officials to close down the entire process. The teachers all ran away in panic, and no results whatsoever were disclosed as the voting was ceasing amidst smoke, irritation, and confusion.
Astounded, aspiring candidates from KUPPET Homa Bay pointed fingers and claimed that the whole mess was designed by thugs who wanted to harm the election of some candidates—the union executives have not yet affirmed this claim publicly.
The secretary of the union branch, Steven Yogo, admitted that one of the major issues was when election materials were tampered with, resulting in the claim of double voting, as some people were saying they used ink remover to vote again.
“We saw an unparalleled collapse of electoral order. Members were stripped of their right to a trustworthy vote,” one of the candidates stated while demanding accountability and the rapid rescheduling of a new election under stricter supervision.
Critics blamed the Labour Office and electoral officials for not handling the situation properly, pointing to lack of infrastructure, inadequate neutral supervision, and poor crowd control. The presence of at least 37 candidates vying for different positions had already created a tense atmosphere before the violence broke out.
KUPPET personnel and teachers all over the country are now looking forward to the guidance of the union’s National Executive Board regarding the manner in which the disrupted voting will be handled, as the demand for the implementation of more stringent measures to secure future democratic practices in the union grows.
This event represents an alarming rise in the conflicts within trade unions and at the same time reveals weaknesses in the electoral culture of Kenya as national politics become more heated in the run-up to the 2027 elections. The situation is likely to develop further as the investigations continue.
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