By JEMEDARI Mwanawakiume
The Kericho by-election was being held to fill the Senate seat vacated by Charles Keter after he was appointed the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum. It has emerged as a battle between the Jubilee Alliance Party and a newly resurgent Kanu. Jubilee’s Aaron Cheruiyot is up against Paul Sang of Kanu, who is a former Health Minister and one-time MP for Bureti. Kanu’s chairman in Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, the son of Kenya’s second President. Political watchers see the by-election as a litmus rest of the Deputy President’s continued influence in the Rift Valley.
In Malindi, the by-election was being held to fill the National Assembly seat previously occupied by Dan Kazungu, who is now the Cabinet Secretary for Mining. Cord’s William Mtengo faces Mr Philip Charo of the Jubilee Alliance Party. Both national as well as county officials from Cord, which sponsored Mr Kazungu to Parliament, have been a strong presence in Malindi throughout the campaign.
A number of incidents happened in Malindi over the course of the election day. ODM Communications Director Mr Philip Etale was arrested in his hotel room at 1am and his laptop confiscated. ODM spokesman Dennis Onyango said on his Facebook page that police also confiscated his phone.
ODM's William Mtengo won Malindi by-election with 15,582 votes while Jubilee's Philip Charo came second place with 9,243 votes. Other contenders were Labour Party of Kenya’s Attas Shariff Ali with 1,547 votes; Kadu-Asili’s Reuben Katana (353); Social Party of Kenya’s David Kithunga (68); Nelson Gunga Benjamin of Federal Party of Kenya (35); and Chama Cha Uzalendo's Peter Ponda (26).
Jubilee's Aaron Cheruiyot won Kericho by-election with 109,358 while KANU's
Kipkorir M. Sang came second with 56,307. Daniel Tonui of NVP 772.
CONGRATS FOR PEACEFULL ELECTIONS
Elections come and go. The people of Kericho and Malindi are to be commended for conducting themselves peacefully, with dignity and exercising their fundamental right to elect a new senator and MP, respectively, in the by-elections yesterday.
Both polls were conducted without major disruptive incident and the voters’ determination to get things right indicates a political maturity that needs to be both nurtured and emulated.
The 12th General Election will be held in barely 16 months from the Kericho and Malindi polls and it is to be hoped that it will register the same good behaviour and determination to be represented by people of the electorate’s choice.
The campaign trail in both Kericho and Malindi was marked by all manner of allegations, including about rigging beforehand and billions of shillings injected into one side of the race.
However, in the end, sobriety prevailed, the voters did their bit and the IEBC its job.
The police and other national security agencies, including a detachment of KDF, did their job well too.
And even if there are those that do not wish to accept the results for whatever reason, legal redress exists.
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