A reminder of today's wise words:
When a house is burning down, its owner does not bother chasing a rat."
And we leave you with this picture of empty ballot boxes that were never used in Kisumu, western Kenya.
A reminder of today's wise words:
When a house is burning down, its owner does not bother chasing a rat."
And we leave you with this picture of empty ballot boxes that were never used in Kisumu, western Kenya.
BBC Africa, Kisumu
As I reported earlier, 19-year-old George Odhiambo died after he was brought to the main hospital in Kenya’s western city of Kisumu.
He had been bleeding heavily from a thigh wound after being shot by police amid clashes with opposition supporters, who were boycotting the presidential election re-run.
I met nurse Henry Ondiek at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital, who explained to me how medics tried to save the young man:
Counting has started in Kenya's election re-run, as AFP's deputy bureau chief for East Africa shows in this video she has posted.
BBC Monitoring's Sammy Maina reports that the polls closed at 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT).
But in places where bad weather or technical hitches delayed opening of the polling stations, time will be allowed to compensate.
In four counties voting has been postponed to Saturday. These are Migori, Siaya, Kisumu and Homa Bay.
As for when we'll know the result, information will be trickling in over the next few days.
The BBC's Anne Soy explains that, unlike the August election, this time we won’t have almost instantaneous updates from polling stations.
No text results will be sent to the National Tallying Centre – only scanned copies of the forms.
That means that the system won’t be automatically adding up the figures and giving us the total number of votes each candidate has at any given point.
The changes were made because the systems were configured to accommodate the results of only two candidates, but then a late court ruling directed the electoral commission to have all eight candidates. The technology provider OT Morpho said it wasn’t feasible to do so in time for the election.
We may have the total votes cast in each constituency by Thursday morning, but the final outcome might be announced much, much later.
The commission has seven days to do so.
Staff at a polling centre in Mombasa, on the coast of Kenya, have the unenviable task of cleaning up human faeces left by protesters keen to show - and share - their disgust with the electoral process.
Residents stormed Bagladesh polling station with buckets of human waste and dumped it there, according to local reports.
One protester was even broadcast on national news broadcaster KTN telling a reporter that he was carrying toilet paper so that he could go and defecate at a polling station.
The news has been a source of entertainment for people on social media.
The ethnic divide in Kenya can be seen in the voting today, with a high turnout so far in regions where President Uhuru Kenyatta's Kikuyu community and Deputy President William Ruto's Kalenjin community reside.
In parts of western Kenya where opposition leader Raila Odinga's Luo community is mostly based, there is a near 100% boycott of the poll.
In fact voting has been suspended in four counties in the region.
Ethnic-based politics is deep-seated in Kenya, fuelled by the illusion that if "one of us" is in power then people from that community will benefit.
President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga enjoy almost god-like loyalty from their ethnic groups.
Kenyan politicians openly appeal for ethnic support although they disdain being labelled as ethnic leaders.
To counter this label they build political alliances with other ethnic groups to create a nationalist flavour.
Ethnic alliances are however fluid. The Luo and Kikuyu, who are avowed political foes, came together in 2002 to back Mwai Kibaki as president. He was Kikuyu.
Mr Odinga and his running mate in the August poll, Kalonzo Musyoka, fell out in 2007 election but patched up their differences to run on a joint ticket in 2013.
There have been some curious developments in areas that do not have strong ethnic appeal for the main players.
In eastern Garissa county, where Mr Kenyatta beat Mr Odinga in the August poll turnout has been low and the ongoing drought could be a factor.
In Kisii and Nyamira counties, which have been called swing regions, early figures show that turnout is low compared to the last election.
Some Kenyans may also feel Mr Odinga’s withdrawal makes the competition somewhat redundant; others may be just fed up with the ongoing political crisis – factors that could all affect the overall turnout.
As we reported earlier, at least one person has been killed and five others injured by police in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in western Kenya.
Our correspondent in Kisumu reported that police used tear gas and live rounds to disperse protesters who are boycotting today's re-run of the presidential election.
Kenya's national police service however is denying as "patently false" reports that they have used live rounds in Mathare, a poor area of the capital Nairobi.
They confirm in the same tweet "a case of a shooting in Homa Bay county "where, they say, a small group of police officers had no choice but to use "live fire to protect themselves" against "a large mob".
Police say that "isolated pockets of violence" have broken out in a few parts of Kenya, but say that voting has otherwise been "proceeding well".
They end the tweet saying "police officers deployed countrywide are under strict instructions to respond to acts of public disorder use lawful means and... appropriate force."
Intense pictures have been coming through showing the clashes between police and protesters in opposition stronghold Kibera, in Kenya's capital Nairobi:
I have been out asking people why they have chosen to vote in today's presidential election re-run.
In the capital, Nairobi, one voter told me they braved the cold for the sake of the future:
I don't mind whether it’s cold or not, I have played my part and now I am going home to do my work, this is what I want for my child."
In Nairobi most polling stations are open and voters are lining up, but in relatively small queues compared to the 8 August presidential election.
Over in central Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta cast his vote in his hometown Gatundu, where the ruling Jubilee party enjoys near-fanatical support. A visibly confident Mr Kenyatta said Kenyans have a right to exercise their democratic duty to vote for a candidate of their choice:
My message, like I have been repeating severally, those who are desirous to vote should be allowed to vote, those who do not wish to vote it’s also their democratic right - but no right supersedes another."
The situation was different in opposition strongholds of western Kenya and the coastal region. Police battled crowds of youths who had barricaded roads to prevent voting in Kisumu and the coastal city of Mombasa. However, one determined voter was frustrated because he could not cast his ballot:
IEBC [the electoral commission] called for elections, I turned up at my polling station but there were no election officials. They are facing logistical difficulties and say that some staff have not appeared, vehicles for transporting elections materials have not appeared."
Main opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for people to boycott the vote - which he calls "a sham" - and stay at home instead.
The chairman of the Kenyan electoral commission Wafula Chebukati has announced that elections in four areas in western Kenya have been postponed until Saturday 28 October.
Those four areas are Migori, Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay.
The East Africa Bureau Chief for for the New York Times has tweeted this picture which appears to be the only vote in a ballot box in Kibera nine hours after polls opened:
Kibera is a poorer area of the capital city Nairobi and is an opposition stronghold.
As Kenyans vote in a re-run of the presidential election, police and opposition supporters have clashed in Kibera - an opposition heartland the capital, Nairobi.
The main opposition leader Raila Odinga has called on his supporters to boycott the vote, advising them to stay at home.
Instead, some have been blocking access to polling stations.
Opposition supporters have brought machetes and rocks to their election protests, and one man can be seen in the video below saying:
We also have guns.
If they fight us, we'll fight them back."
Kenya's Chief Justice David Maraga made history when, along with three of his colleagues, he annulled the August presidential election.
He later said he was "prepared to pay the ultimate price" to protect the rule of law, criticising attempts to "intimidate the judiciary" from protesters who were unhappy with the Supreme Court ruling which declared the poll "invalid, null and void" - leading to fresh presidential elections.
Yesterday he cut a lone figure in the Supreme Court when he announced that the court was unable hear a petition calling for a delay of the re-run because not enough judges were available to hear the case. Only two of seven Supreme Court judges attended the hearing when they needed five to make a binding decision.
Today he has been pictured casting his vote:
A group which describes itself as a grassroots organisation demanding accountability has tweeted a video of prisoners voting in Nakuru, western Kenya:
BBC Africa, Kisumu
At least one person has been killed and five others injured by police in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in Western Kenya.
Police have used tear gas and live rounds to disperse protesters who are boycotting today's re-run of the presidential election.
Nineteen-year-old George Odhiambo was brought to the main hospital in Kisumu bleeding heavily from a thigh wound. He died as medics tried frantically to save him.
A doctor at the hospital told the BBC that Mr Odhiambo had lost too much blood after being shot in a slum area in the city.
His brother told me that they had been sitting outside their house watching opposition demonstrations.
Four other patients nursing gunshot wounds were also brought to the hospital at the same time. They are all however in a stable condition.
Police have engaged opposition supporters in running battles all morning.
Most people have heeded the boycott call by the opposition - and many polling stations have been barricaded to stop any would-be voters.
Shortly after casting his ballot at his home constituency in Uasin Gishu county, western Kenya, Deputy President William Ruto told the BBC he wasn't impressed by the opposition threat to start civil disobedience to push for reforms:
We are a country governed by rules. Anybody who tells us now that this is [going to change] is simply not telling us anything positive.
All attempts to create civil disobedience and disorder in Kenya will not succeed.
We know that there is an attempt by others to drive a narrative of illegitimacy, but that will fail.
Because the people of Kenya have stepped forward – except those who have been prevented by hooligans and rioters – to discharge their responsibility.
The legitimacy of this election is going to be measured not by people… but [by] the constitution.
Will this election meet the constitutional threshold for us to have a president? That is the yardstick upon which this election will be measured.
And I want to tell you: we will get to that yardstick with flying colours."
So far today we have reported on two candidates in the Kenyan presidential election re-run - the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta and the opposition Raila Odinga.
But there are actually eight candidates to choose from on the ballot paper today.
One is independent presidential candidate Joseph Nyagah.
After he had voted, he told KTN television news that, although he had voted, he was very sad for the country:
He is looking ahead to what happens after today's vote:
May I pray, that even after what we have gone through what we are going through today, that the leadership of this country will sit down, irrespective of the outcome of today’s elections, and find a way forward.
When a man was photographed holding a bag of snacks while waiting in line to vote in August it quickly captured Kenyans' imaginations.
Tens of thousands of social media users have talked about the unidentified man using the hashtag #GitheriMan.
He was nick-named Githeriman because it turned out he was eating a traditional meal of boiled maize and beans called Githeri (also known as mutheri) which is filling, nutritious and cheap.
An appeal was even launched to find the mystery man.
Today, 'Githeriman' has been spotted once again, much to the delight of Kenyan journalist Teddy Eudenge:
A Daily Nation article looks out how Kenya got into the situation today, where the opposition are boycotting a re-run of the presidential election.
It goes with the headline "Why last-ditch effort to broker poll deal fell apart".
It claims that under-the-radar mediation failed.
It adds that a meeting took place last Saturday at a Country Club hosted by business people.
It describes it as "the last in a series of quiet gatherings in the past two weeks involving a cross-section of interest groups, who were all keen to broker a ceasefire and prevent an eruption of ethnic and political violence over the contentious election".
But ultimately these meetings didn't succeed, as the Nation reports, "the groups could not agree on a common position" to present to President Uhuru Kenyatta and National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga.
Live bullets have been fired in Kisumu, western Kenya, the BBC's Emmanuel Igunza reports.
Two people have been wounded - both have had gunshots to the thigh.
One of the injured is a 15-year-old boy and the other is a 21-year-old man.
They are both being treated in hospital.
Relatives at the hospital say police shot the live rounds.
Our correspondent adds that tear gas has also been fired and crowds have dispersed from the main square in the opposition stronghold.
This photo shows police using water cannon:
A Twitter user has posted pictures from around Garissa town in eastern Kenya, showing empty polling stations:
Garissa is the hometown of National Assembly Majority Leader, and Jubilee MP Adan Duale.
Main opposition leader Raila Odinga - who represents the National Super Alliance (Nasa) - has called for "fresh, free and fair" presidential elections to be "organised within 90 days".
Mr Odinga tweeted the statement today, attributing the quote to a speech made yesterday to opposition supporters in Nairobi's Uhuru Park.
The opposition coalition is boycotting today's vote because it says that the electoral commission (IEBC) failed to make the changes needed to prevent a repeat of the mistakes that marred the earlier poll. The IECB disputes this.
President Uhuru Kenyatta told journalists gathered outside the polling centre where he cast his vote in central Kenya that it's time for Kenyans to cast their votes and move forward.
Main opposition candidate Raila Odinga has urged his supporters to boycott the election, plus road blocks in places like Kisumu county and the port of Mombasa appear to be contributing to a lower turnout at this stage compared to the original vote in August.
All we're asking is that Kenyans turn out. We are requesting them humbly that they should turn out in large numbers to cast their vote... choose their leader... for our country to move on.
We are tired as a country of electioneering, It's time to move forward."
The Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation has tweeted this from east of the capital Nairobi:
The world through its media
In opposition leader Raila Odinga’s western region support base of Kisumu, Luo-language Radio Nam Lolwe, Radio Lake Victoria and Dala FM stations are reporting that residents are obeying his call to boycott today's re-run of the presidential election. They say no polling stations have opened in Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay and Migori counties.
The stations have also been reporting that protesters have barricaded roads and lit fires. A caller to Radio Nam Lolwe said they were awaiting fresh instructions from Mr Odinga.
In central Kenya and in the western Rift Valley region where President Uhuru Kenyatta has support, the vernacular radios say voting is going smoothly.
Kikuyu-language Inooro and Kameme FM are running live coverage of the elections. Presenters have been reading messages from people saying they had turned up early to wait for polling stations to open.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has cast his ballot at his constituency in Kiambu county, central Kenya.
Our colleague Anthony Irungu is there and took photos of other voters at the polling station, at Mutomo primary school in Gatundu.
Our correspondent Alastair Leithead reports there are road blocks and fires in Kisumu, the opposition heartland in western Kenya.
He has sent this photo taken next to a polling station which is locked up and empty.
Only three electoral officials out of 399 have shown up for work in Kenya’s western county of Kisumu, the returning officer for Kisumu Central constituency John Ngutia says.
The county is the heartland of the main opposition candidate Raila Odinga.
His coalition - the National Super Alliance (Nasa) – has called for his supporters to boycott the presidential election re-run, saying it will not be free or fair.
Mr Ngutia told the BBC’s Emmanuel Igunza the officials fear they may be intimidated for taking part in the election.
Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has voted in his home constituency of Turbo, in Uasin Gishu county in the country's west.
Our colleague Angela Ngendo shared these photos of Mr Ruto queuing beforehand with constituents.
We have just received this picture from Getty showing a man running away from teargas in Kibera, one of the poorer areas of Kenya's capital Nairobi:
This is added to the report of teargas being thrown in Kisumu, in the west of Kenya. Our reporter in Mombasa also suspects he turned up to the scene after teargas had been used, as it smelt that way.
Kenyan police fired tear gas to disperse groups of stone-throwing young men in Kisumu, a witness told Reuters news agency.
It is an opposition stronghold where polling stations have failed to open for the re-run of a presidential election.
"The queues are short. Please come and vote," Chief Francis Kariuki has urged other Kenyans.
He is based in Nakuru, a stronghold for the governing Jubilee Party.
Chief Kariuki - who has more than 60,000 Twitter followers - has used the site to track down missing sheep and report crime before.
He says even the thieves in his village follow him on Twitter.
We recently reported that in Mombasa, on the coast, barricades are blocking people from getting to polling stations.
But just south of the capital, Kenya's Daily Nation has found a story of a man doing everything he can to help people get to vote - by giving people a lift on his motorbike:
Kenya's opposition Nasa coalition has boycotted today's re-run of the presidential election.
But that isn't the only reason people are not turning up to vote.
BBC Newsday has been consulting our network of reporters across Kenya to see what people have been telling them why they aren't voting.
David Wafula has just come back from one of the biggest polling stations in the capital city, Nairobi.
If you compare from the earlier election the turnout is much lower, he says.
"Some people are taking their time, looking at what the situation will be, before they come and vote," he adds.
Ferdinand Omondi is outside one of the routes to a polling station in Mombasa, a city on the coast.
"Even those who want to vote do not get the chance to vote", he says.
"People are stopping others from getting to polling stations. They have lit bonfires in the middle of roads on the way to polling stations.
"I can smell tear gas, meaning a little has been sprayed earlier to disperse people.
"The rain has started pouring down heavily, which may have started sending people home."
When Kenya's electoral commission settled on 26 October as the date for the re-run of the presidential election, President Uhuru Kenyatta's supporters were quick to point out that it coincided with his birthday.
National news broadcaster KTN filmed this boy wearing a T-shirt wishing the Jubilee Party candidate and incumbent president a happy birthday.
Our colleague Roderick MaCleod in Kenya's opposition stronghold - Kisumu county - sent these photos of ballot boxes arriving under police guard at Lions High School just over an hour ago.
Polling stations across Kenya were due to open at 06:00 (03:00 GMT).
Electoral Commission returning officers - the people who oversee the voting process at constituency level - say only two officials out of 399 have turned up for the county.
Our correspondent tweets:
We have been reporting either markedly short queues to vote in Kenya's presidential election re-run, or non-existent queues.
That isn't the case across the whole of Kenya. One of our reporters, Tony Irungu, has found a long queue in the rain in Kiambu county in central Kenya. It's a stronghold for the ruling Jubilee party.
Kenya's electoral commission has tweeted that voting has started in 'most' polling stations:
While Kenya election watchers question this. East Africa deputy bureau chief at Reuters news agency tweets:
And in a poorer part of the capital Nairobi, at least one polling station was closed when this Al Jazeera reporter went there:
Plus a Kenyan journalist saw voting materials that appear not to have been distributed yet:
This picture appears to capture a polling station that is open, only without voters:
BBC Africa, Nairobi
Queues snaked from this polling station in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, when I was here for the elections in August.
But so far this chilly morning turnout at Moi Avenue Primary School - the largest polling centre in Nairobi - has been low for those voting in the repeat presidential election:
The process is much quicker as people are only voting for president - in August there were six separate ballot papers, including those for MPs, governors and county assemblies.
Some people were happy to brave the drizzle:
The re-run comes after the Supreme Court annulled the result of presidential vote because of "irregularities".
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking a second term and won the cancelled August election, has urged people to vote and remain peaceful.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has pulled out of the re-run, has called on his supporters to stay away.
Our new Africa editor tweets:
Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu failed to appear at the Supreme Court yesterday after her bodyguard was shot and wounded by unknown gunmen on Tuesday.
Only two judges turned up, when five where needed to make a final decision on whether the election today should be blocked. Without a decision, the election went ahead by default.
Our correspondent goes on to look at what the condemnation means:
BBC Africa correspondent, Kenya
The polling stations have opened across Kenya for a re-run of the presidential election, but early indications are that there’s a much lower turnout than the first ballot.
The main opposition candidate has boycotted the poll and called on his supporters not to vote.
I'm in Kisumu in western Kenya, which is an opposition stronghold and little, if any voting, is going on there.
Here in the heartland of the main opposition candidate Raila Odinga, youths are blocking the streets, demonstrations are under way and polling stations haven’t opened.
Election officials are trying to get ballot boxes and voting slips out and find staff willing to run the vote but logistics are a problem.
I'm in a school in the centre of Kisumu where cardboard polling booths and boxes have only just arrived for wider distribution – in a prison service van. Commercial truck drivers are afraid of being targeted.
In other parts of Kenya the vote is going ahead as planned, but it seems turnout is lower than the first election.
International observers have scaled down their missions and there’s an expectation that the legitimacy of this poll will be challenged.