Jirongo and Nyagah thanked the electorate for peaceful participating in polls, demonstrating maturity and love for the country/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 11 – Two more presidential candidates, Cyrus Jirongo (United Democratic Party) and Joseph Nyagah (Independent), have conceded defeat as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries commission inched closer to declaring presidential results.
In a joint statement, Jirongo and Nyagah thanked the electorate for peaceful participating in polls, demonstrating maturity and love for the country.
The two said challenges encountered by the IEBC should be used as lessons for the better management of future polls.
“It is obvious that the IEBC faced a number of challenges after the voting was over. We hope that the team will use these challenges as a learning process,” Nyagah and Jirongo who had garnered 37,791 and 11,240 votes respectively said in their statement.
“We strongly believe that for our country to develop, peace must prevail. We therefore concede defeat and accept the will of the people,” they added while calling upon the government to unite the country for effective nation building.
The duo joins Thirdway Alliance’s Ekuru Aukot and Japheth Kaluyu both of whom conceded defeat early in the week.
While addressing the press on Thursday, Aukot urged the nation to remain calm underscoring the need for patience to allow the IEBC complete tallying results.
“Until IEBC declares official results, we cannot, therefore, claim anybody has won or lost and therefore there’s actually no cause for celebration or feeling cheated. IEBC Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba himself has confirmed that what is being broadcast is actually not official results yet,” Aukot told reporters at the Bomas of Kenya – the nerve centre of the 2017 presidential election tally.
Kaluyu was the first to concede on Wednesday when it emerged that he had only garnered slightly over 11,000 votes results.
“For us to come from 11,000 to 7 million votes it is going to be a long night. Given the way the figures look, we’re going to concede and so far it looks like President Uhuru Kenyatta is going to carry the day,” he said accompanied by his running mate Eliud Kariara.
“I will support the winner. It is a hard thing to swallow but maturity demands that we’re able to move on. Hitches happen the world over but that doesn’t mean a whole process is compromised,” he stated adding that the Tuesday elections were peaceful and credible.
At the time they were conceding, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati had indicated that only 17 forms 34B were yet to reach the National Tallying Centre from all 290 constituencies as the process of collating presidential results neared the end.
“So far we’ve received 273 forms 34Bs and we’re still expecting 17. The forms we’re expecting are from Nyali, Mvita, Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera West, North Imenti, Mwingi North, Kitui East, Ndaragwa, Mathira, Turkana North, Kimilili, Kasipul, Ndhiwa, North Mugirango and Embakasi West,” Chebukati said in his 10th media briefing since the election ended.
Already, the Commission has invited all the eight presidential candidates to the Bomas of Kenya, even as advance security teams arrived at the venue with President Uhuru Kenyatta poised to carry the day.
By midday Friday, President Kenyatta was leading with 8,180,718 votes, NASA candidate Raila Odinga trailing 10 percentage points behind with 6,772,813 votes.
Top government officials including Deputy President William Ruto, Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, Treasury’s Henry Rotich and Foreign Affairs’ Amina Mohammed arrived at Bomas of Kenya even as the venue received yet another security boost with the arrival of the president’s advance team.
Raila Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka were also at Bomas.
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