KALEMBE LOSSES RASANGA WINS

ODM last night won the race for Siaya governor.

As we went to press, the party’s candidate, Mr Cornel Rasanga Amoth (above), had garnered 107,737 votes while his closest rival, Mr William Oduol Ochol had 64,106. Mr Noah Migudo Winja, an independent candidate, managed 1,446.

In Kibwezi, TIP’s Kalembe Ndile was defeated by Patrick Mweu Musimba, an independent candidate. Ms Juliana Mumo Kismbi of Pick was trailing at a distant third.

And in Matungulu, Wiper’s Stephen Mule won the parliamentary by-election, garnering 11,639 votes against Thomas Malinda’s 8,951. Moffat Maitha of Narc was third.

In the Kibwezi West race, Dr Musimba garnered 17,103 votes votes against Mr Ndile’s 16,928.

In Siaya, a heavy downpour late in the evening did not dampen the spirit of the voters who continued to stream into polling stations even as the leading candidates cried foul, each accusing the other of electoral malpractices.

Mr Oduol and Mr Rasanga both reported to the Siaya police station that they had witnessed cases of voter bribery and violence.

Siaya County Police Commander Beatrice Gichagu said her officers were yet to arrest anybody.

She said “We received complaints from both the candidates’ agents but we have to investigate thoroughly before making any arrests”.

Dr Winja trashed the allegations by his rivals, saying that his opponents were merely crying wolf.

“Let’s face it, our opponents have been using money in the campaigns and they therefore should not go around crying foul. As far as I am concerned I have not heard of any such incidents,” he said.

In some parts of the county such as Bondo, light showers in the afternoon slowed down the rate at which votes trickled into the polling stations.

Mrs Osiemo, a resident, said that the by-election — occassioned by an election petition against Mr Rasanga who was declared winner in the March 4 election — had a lower voter turnout compared to the March elections.

She attributed the low turn-out to the fact that yesterday was a working day.

Siaya county was the second to hold a by-election since March. The first was Makueni where voters went back to elect a senator after the death of Mr Mutula Kilonzo. However, Siaya is the first where a by-election for governor has been held.

The by election was occasioned by a petition filed by Mr Oduol who had cited among other issues, intimidation by ODM during campaigns and being painted as a Jubilee candidate in the Cord dominated area.

Although to many the fresh elections was seen as grudge match between Mr Rasanga and Oduol, the ODM brigade had indicated they would fight tooth and nail to retain the seat to ensure that the party has a majority of governors compared to the ruling Jubilee Coalition.

Before Mr Rasanga’s election was nullified, Cord had 24 governors while the Jubilee and the Amani coalitions held the other 23. With Mr Rasanga’s victory last night, ODM restored its majority in the Council of Governors.

Cord deputy leader of Minority, Mr Jakoyo Midiwo, had said that having more governors than Jubilee would help his coalition in its push for high allocation of resources to county governments.

“This is not about Oduol and Rasanga; the battle is bigger and we must think beyond Siaya,” he had said ahead of the by-election.