Governor Benjamin Cheboi loses in Baringo Jubilee primaries

Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi casts his vote at Shimoni in Eldama Ravine during Jubilee party nominations on April 24, 2017. He lost in the nominations. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Baringo County Governor Benjamin Cheboi has become one of the first governors to be defeated in the ongoing party primaries in which voters appear impatient to send the founding devolution chiefs home.

Even though all results had not been counted by the time of going to press, Mr Cheboi, a former CEO of the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb), was trailing his opponent, the local teachers’ union boss Stanley Kiptis, by huge margins in nearly every polling station.

There being no major challenger to Mr Kiptis in the August 8 general election, the easy going teacher is already almost certainly assured of evicting the bureaucrat from the governor’s office at Kabarnet, home of Kenya’s second President Daniel Arap Moi. 

Also shown the door by Jubilee supporters are Baringo Central MP Sammy Mwaita and his Mogotio constituency counterpart Helen Sambili who are winding up their second terms.

Mr Mwaita, a former lands boss, lost to David Kerich, a Nairobi-based lawyer who got 12, 341 votes against the MP’s 5, 448.

Prof Sambili, a former university teacher and Kanu stalwart who defected to Jubilee last year, lost to Dr Daniel Tuitoek, an engineering lecturer at Egerton University.

Dr Tuitoek garnered 11,994 votes against Sambili's 6,015.