NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 21 – Song and dance broke at the Railways Training Institute (RTI) in Nairobi on Tuesday morning, when Narc-Kenya’s Gidion Mbuvi was announced the new Makadara Member of Parliament.
Mr Mbuvi (popularly known as Sonko) was declared the undisputed by-election winner at 3 a.m. after garnering 19,913 votes against Reuben Ndolo’s 17,652. Former area MP Dick Wathika trailed behind with 11,088 votes.
Sonko who seemed exhausted promised to remain true to his pledge of alleviating poverty in the area.
“I will honour all the promises I made to you when I was campaigning. I will continue standing by the people of Makadara and will continue being development-conscious. My main focus still remains ridding this constituency of poverty,” he said.
Meanwhile bonfires were lit outside the tallying center in his honour with supporters chanting songs of praise. They were however quick to remind him of the huge responsibility that lay ahead of him.
“The old guard has been in Parliament for so long but they don’t do anything for us. All they do is eat and grow big while poverty in this area continues. Sonko should also remember that if he doesn’t perform, he will not be re-elected,” said one of the youths.
The flamboyant MP also thanked his supporters and Narc-Kenya for giving him a direct nomination: “I would first like to thank our Lord Almighty for giving me this chance and all who believed in me even as others turned me away.”
Earlier on Monday, Sonko had accused his competitors of buying voters and even asked the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) to take appropriate action. His allegations were however rubbished by Mr Ndolo.
“Some of our people can just come up with propaganda and talk about buying of voters but you know it is not easy to buy people of this area. So even if they are doing that, let the people decide,” he had said.
Makadara constituency’s Returning Officer Florence Mogaka also allayed the fears saying the police were already looking into it.
“Claims of the malpractice were said to be in Plainsview primary school polling station, Dr Kraph primary school polling station and in Kaloleni. The police have already been dispatched to the areas and the report they’ve sent is that no such incidences occurred; especially not in the polling stations,” she had told Capital News.
As the votes were being announced, Medical Services Minister Anyang’ Nyong’o, politicians John Kiarie and Maurice Ochieng (Mudomo Baggy) strode in.
Some minutes later the medical services minister wrote a note to the Returning officer who read it and continued announcing the results before some sort of scuffle ensued forcing the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) Chief Elections Officer James Oswago to intervene.
It was at this point that Prof Nyong’o and the other ODM politicians left the venue. Prof Nyong’o had earlier tried to get into the tallying hall but was booed and jeered.
Apart from Narc-Kenya and the United Democratic Movement, no other political party sent representative agents to observe and sign Forms 17A.
Form 17A is a summary of all individual Form 16A which contains the results of every polling station.
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