Obado when he cast his vote in the primaries/COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 25 – Incumbent Migori Governor Okoth Obado has been declared winner of the ODM nomination in the county despite his competitor Ochillo Ayacko obtaining claiming he had obtained an order blocking the results.
The outcome of the gubernatorial race was announced by the returning officer Samson Olala who put Obado ahead with 110,142 votes.
Ayacko, his closet competitor garnered 59,449 votes in the exercise which was marred by claims of rigging.
Obado had earlier dismissed the move by Ayacko, saying due process was not followed.
“I think that is laughable. I expected my worthy competitor as a learned friend to have known better. When it comes to party matters, you have to exhaust all the internal party mechanisms before you resort to the courts,” he said.
“So for him to come here and purport to serve some order in my opinion I think that is mischief,” he stated.”
Tension was high during the announcement as Ayacko, argued that the order from the Appeals Tribunal nullified the entire nomination exercise since it was favouring the incumbent governor.
“We have served the order of stoppage of the entire process upon the Returning Officer and the order indicates very clearly that the process is a nullity,” he stated.
“Whatever has been announced should be nullified and any continuation of that announcement is an exercise in futility.”
Heavily armed General Service Unit officers were present at the tallying centre to maintain peace after rowdy youths started shouting.
Ayacko indicated that he sought the tribunal’s intervention when he noted glaring anomalies in results from various swing-vote areas.
“You have seen that one particular candidate is holding the whole process hostage. It is not a place that is conducive for good dialogue. We have done our bit in as far as the legal process is concerned,” he said.
“So we are going to do our politics. Normally when you think that the nomination process is not fair, you approach an Appeals Tribunal,” he explained.
Obado however dismissed the order saying that Ayacko did not follow due process and as such his claims of rigging were unfounded.
The battle for the Migori gubernatorial seat was a two-horse race between Obado and Ayacko.
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