Waiguru clinches Kirinyaga Jubilee ticket for governor
Kirinyaga gubernatorial aspirant Anne Waiguru enjoys a light moment with polling agents at Kianyaga polling station after review of vote tallying on April 25, 2017. POTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Mr Gitari’s biggest leap came from his Kirinyaga Central constituency where he garnered more than 29,669.
- Residents in the county also kicked out all MPs and two-thirds of MCAs in an electoral clean-up not seen in decades.
- The senate race was a neck-to-neck race between Charles Kabiru and incumbent Daniel Karaba.
Former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru has clinched the Kirinyaga Jubilee Party governorship ticket with 100,632 votes.
Her close rival, Kirinyaga Central MP Joseph Gitari Gachok garnered 46,678 votes.
Her win brings to two the number of women who have sailed through the nominations to fight it out for the governorship.
All signs had indicated that Ms Waiguru would emerge victor after a tally of three of the four constituencies — Ndia, Gichugu and Kirinyaga Central — showed she was leading with 58,984 votes followed Mr Gitari who had garnered 38,734 while incumbent Governor Joseph Ndathi only managed 11,556. Former KRA boss Eliud Wanjau received 3,036 votes.
The shock candidate was Mr Gitari as he had barely campaigned for the gubernatorial post and had not even named a running mate, yet he gave Ms Waiguru a run for her money and defeated Mr Ndathi, who has spent immense resources in the campaign.
POLITICAL FUTURE
Mr Gitari’s biggest leap came from his Kirinyaga Central constituency where he garnered more than 29,669.
Governor Ndathi blamed a shambolic process for his defeat.
“Although I lost, I lost with my people but Jubilee can have its way and us the minority, can have our say,” said Governor Ndathi. He said he would give direction on his political future this week.
Residents in the county also kicked out all MPs and two-thirds of MCAs in an electoral clean-up not seen in decades.
Vote counting for Mwea constituency in Kirinyaga County going on in this picture taken on April 25, 2017. PHOTO | KENNEDY KIMANTHI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The senate race was a neck-to-neck race between Charles Kabiru and incumbent Daniel Karaba. From the three constituencies, Mr Karaba had 39,319 followed by Mr Kibiru 32,193 votes.
Mrs Wangui Ngirichi, a wealthy trader who ran a flashy campaign complete with helicopters and conspicuous branding, trumped the incumbent Winnie Karimi by garnering 67,032. Ms Karimi got 10,928.
Lawmakers, Njogu Barua (Gichugu), Peter Gitau (Mwea) and Stephen Ngare (Ndia) lost in the party primaries conducted across the region.
CONFIDENCE
They had earlier expressed confidence that they would triumph but got a rude shock when they were defeated by newcomers in politics. Mr Barua was defeated by lawyer Githinji Gichimu who polled 27,959 votes against the incumbent's 8,558.
And Mr Gitau was trounced by a computer scientist Mr Kabinga Wathayu during the hotly contested nominations.
Mr Ngare who is seeking a second term was trounced by little known Nairobi businessman, Mr George Kariuki.
The incumbent garnered 5,944 votes while Mr Kariuki polled 9,429 votes during the exercise.
In Kirinyaga Central constituency, lawyer John Munene won the nominations. Mr Munene polled 11, 432 votes while his closet rival Mr Mwai Kabui garnered 11, 297 votes.
