RUTO DEFEATS RAILA IN THE BATTLE OF MSAMBWENI

Independent candidate Feisal Badar won the hotly contested Msambweni by-election beating ODM’s Omar Boga, according to provisional results.

At 4am, IEBC tally showed that Feisal had 15,251 votes against Boga’s 10,444 votes from all the 129 polling stations.

Wiper’s Abdurahman Sheikh was a distant third with 790 votes followed by Hamisi Mwakaonje Liganje(UGM) with 230 and Marere Wa Mwachai Mwarapayo(NVP) with 300.

Other candidates were Ali Hassan Mwakulonda (PED) – 107 votes, Charles Bambo Bilali (Independent)- 135, Sharlet Akinyi Onyango(Independent)- 18 and Mansury Kumaka Abdulrahman (Independent)- 38.

The number of registered voters in the constituency are 69,003 with the by-election attracting 39.58 per cent turnout.

The by-election which arose following the death of Suleiman Dori was seen as a battle between DP William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga.

Ruto threw his weight behind Feisal after the ruling Jubilee Party announced that it would not field a candidate.

Ruto and Raila deployed political heavyweights to watch over the voting process as they heightened the battle for the Coast voting block.

Despite a low voter turnout, the exercise was marked by arrests of politicians and agents, voter bribery allegations, missing names in the voter register and pockets of violence as rival groups clashed.

Ruto supported Bader as part of a strategy to test his political clout at the Coast.

There has been speculation that President Uhuru Kenyatta was supporting the ODM candidate. The two were photographed together just last week during the President’s commissioning of Likoni floating bridge.

Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho and other ODM troops including secretary-general Edwin Sifuna have for weeks pitched tent in the region to recapture the seat held by ODM since 2007.

Sourced from The Star