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Onyancha survives by a whisker in Bomachoge Borabu

And while Onyancha naturally welcomed the win, Kimori accused his opponent of locking his agents from seven of the 80 polling stations/FILE

And while Onyancha naturally welcomed the win, Kimori accused his opponent of locking his agents from seven of the 80 polling stations/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 19 – The National Alliance (TNA) candidate Joel Onyancha came out from behind to retain the Bomachoge Borabu National Assembly seat with 10,483 votes.

It was a tight race against the Orange Democratic Movement’s (ODM) candidate Peter Kimori who came in second with 10,052 votes according to provisional results by the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Thursday.

Albert Nyaundi of Ford-People came in third with 3,325 votes while Josiah Maaga of the United Democratic Forum Party (UDFP), Samson Mbeche of the Progressive Party of Kenya (PPK), Christopher Siambe of the Kenya National Congress (KNC) and Nickson Mosingi of NARC-K brought up the rear with 502, 155, 150 and 49 votes respectively.

And while Onyancha naturally welcomed the win, Kimori accused his opponent of locking his agents from seven of the 80 polling stations.

“My agents did not witness the opening of seven polling stations because they were attacked by people believed to be TNA supporters,” he complained.

After casting his vote, Onyancha had also accused Kimori of attempting to bribe voters and lamented at the low voter turnout.

IEBC Returning Officer Gilbert Serem however characterised the turnout as, “expected,” and denied receiving any evidence of any electoral malpractice by either candidate.

“Just look at previous by-election turnouts, they usually fall at 60 percent so this is normal. As for the claims of bribery and intimidation, I have not seen any evidence to that effect,” he stated.

Onyancha’s election in March was nullified in October after High Court Judge Edward Muriithi found that his win could not be supported as vital tallying documents were missing.

“Without counterfoils and forms 35 from some stations it is difficult to verify the results,” Muriithi explained as he gave his ruling.

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Kimori and Nyaundi had petitioned Onyancha’s win citing electoral irregularities and despite Onyancha challenging Muriithi’s ruling in the Court of Appeal, he lost out.

And had he lost Thursday’s by-election it would have been the second time he lost out in a by-election after failing to defend the Bomachoge seat against current Bomachoge Chache MP Simon Ogari in 2010.

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