Jubilee Party sweeps Kajiado County
Joseph ole Lenku (centre) flanked by his running mate, Martin Moshisho (left) and Kajiado Returning Officer, Saadi Noor, holds his winner’s certificate at the Maasai Training Technical Training Institute on Thursday night. PHOTO | JOSEPH NGUNJIRI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Jubilee Party has stamped its authority on the political landscape in Kajiado County by sweeping all the three county seats as well as four out of five parliamentary seats.
Thursday was Jubilee's crowning moment when former Security minister Joseph Ole Lenku bounced back to snatch the governorship seat from incumbent Dr David Nkedianye of ODM.
Ole Lenku polled 174,697 against Dr Nkedianye's 146,652. Dr Nkedianye had on Wednesday gathered the media to claim that the provisional results that showed him lagging behind Mr Ole Lenku were fake.
He was not at the Maasai Technical Training Institute, on Thursday night, when county Returning Officer Saadi Noor, officially declared that Mr Ole Lenku would be the new governor.
Jubilee Party has always considered Dr Nkedianye an interloper in the seat they believed belonged to them. Dr Nkedianye got an easy pass to the governor's mansion, in 2013, after the hot favourite, Taraiya ole Kores was barred from contesting, at the last minute, by the court, for not having the required academic papers.
Ironically, Mr Ole Kores was supporting Dr Nkedianye in the 2017 elections after he lost to Mr Ole Lenku during the JP nominations.
For the Woman Rep seat, Janet Teiyaa, a person living with disability, replaced Ms Mary Seneta as the next Woman Rep after she got 186,085 beating her closest challenger, Esther Somoire of ODM, who got 104,486. Newcomer Philip Mpaayei shook off a spirited onslaught from ODM's Daniel Tinaai, to succeed Peter Mositet as Kajiado's second senator.
Out of the five parliamentary seats, JP got four against ODM's one. They are Joseph Manje of Kajiado North, Peris Tobiko of Kajiado East, George Sunkuyia of Kajiado West and Katoo ole Metito of Kajiado South. Elijah Memusi is the only exception retaining his Kajiado Central seat on an ODM ticket.
