Inside room where DP Ruto will address Kenyans

Located some 10km from the Nairobi city centre, the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) hosts Kenya Kwanza's communication centre.

CUEA was recently the site of the 2022 presidential debate that Azimio's Raila Odinga gave a wide berth.

Its auditorium has a podium, from which Kenya Kwanza officials will issue formal communication regarding the elections.

This is the podium where Deputy President William Ruto would address Kenyans about the elections and results.

But on Thursday evening, there was little activity at the venue of the kind one would expect – no one was there priming it to host a worthy election contender and no crowd of supporters milling around.

Elections in Kenya are always viewed as a matter of life and death. With CUEA hosting such a strategic venue, nobody goes in without security checks.

DP Ruto’s communication team had asked journalists to get accreditation to be allowed to enter. Anyone without an access card would be locked out, they said, without mincing their words.

No one goes through the gate without the cards hanging on their necks.

The facility has more than one gate. But guards are under "strict instructions" to direct everyone to use the gates where they can be checked for compliance with the security directives.

"Do you have our accreditation cards? Ensure they are on your necks all the time," a security guard told us.

Handful of vehicles

Past the gate is parking. On Thursday evening, it had a handful of vehicles.

The auditorium is almost empty. Apart from a few loyalists milling around, the Nation gathered that it had not witnessed much activity. And the darkness of the night seemed to have sapped any glitz left.

Receptionists, seated at a desk near the entrance to the venue, intimated to the Nation that no prominent Kenya Kwanza-allied political leaders had visited. If their word was anything to go by, then only Mr Dennis Itumbi, a strategist and highly placed member of the team, had walked past the door around 9.30pm.

Little to no razzmatazz characterised the twilight, unexpectedly so because the Kenya Kwanza camp has been alleging victory all through the day.

At 7.30pm, the podium was still being prepared. The flags of the parties under the Kenya Kwanza coalition were being mounted.

Two Kenyan flags were placed at the dais. A yellow banner with the coalition's colours and writing decorated the podium. Most of the maroon seats were unoccupied, with just a handful filled with the coalition's loyalists.

Some of them would occasionally take selfies in front of a banner with the words "Ruto for President Communication Centre".

Mr Munyori Buku, a member of the Ruto communications team, told the Nation that there would be no press briefing during the night. As the news of this announcement sank in, many left the venue. Quiet and lifeless CUEA is witnessing little or no activity tonight.