The victory of Independent candidate Feisal Bader in the just concluded Msambweni by-election sent shockwaves in the political circles.
Bader floored ODM's Omar Boga who was touted to bag the seat fueling a growing trend of voters overlooking party affiliations to elect independent candidates at the expense of political party candidates who have well-oiled mobilisation machinery.
Another surprise victory was witnessed in the Gitura MCA by-election where a former NTV correspondent Esther Mwihaki, an independent candidate, managed to defeat favourite Jubilee candidate Rosemary Wakuthie
Mwihaki clinched the seat with 3,974 votes while Wakuthie, who had served as the area MCA between 2013 and 2017, got 3,423 votes.
The seat fell vacant after the death of Cyrus Mbembe who succumbed to cancer in September 2020. Mbembe had won the seat in 2017 vying as an independent candidate.
The two politicians are the latest crop of politicians to battle big party candidates and win elective seats.
Over the years there have been a number of independent politicians who have succeeded against all odds to pull David vs Goliath political contest and emerge as winners.
Paul Mwirigi
In 2017, Paul Mwirigi, then 23 years, became the youngest parliamentarian in Kenya’s history.
He decided to run for the Igembe South seat while he was a university student and beat veteran politicians to win the Igembe South parliamentary seat in the general elections.
He trounced Jubilee Party candidate Rufus Miriti by over 3,000 votes, with Mwenda Mzalendo, Kubai Mutuma and Raphael Muriungi taking the other spots respectively.
In previous interviews, Mwirigi explained that his door-to-door and personal campaigns appealed to the masses. Mwirigi used a bicycle to transverse the county as his opponents had convoys of vehicles to campaign.
He garnered 18,867 votes as an independent candidate after a door-to-door campaign supported by volunteers to win the hearts of the people.
Patrick Wainaina
In 2017, Patrick Wainaina was a little known politician seeking to be the next MP of Thika Town.
After losing the Jubilee party nominations, Wainaina, who is popularly known as Wainaina wa Jungle, went on to run as an independent candidate.
He managed to trounce the Jubilee candidate Alice Ng’ang’a in a zone where the party enjoyed a large following.
In the surprise victory, Wainaina garnered 58,286 votes or 52.57% of votes cast, while Ng'ang'a got 52,115 (47%). George Murito was third with 477 votes, representing 0.43% of the votes cast.
Janet Jepkemboi Sitienei
Janet Sitienei running as an independent candidate pulled a surprise victory when she clinched the Turbo Parliamentary seat beating Jubilee's Kevin Okwara to second place in the 2017 elections.
Sitienei who had lost to Okwara during the Jubilee party primaries garnered 37,854 votes to beat her main challenger who got 31, 928 votes.
William Chepkut
William Chepkut also ran as an Independent Candidate and beat Samuel Chepkonga of the Jubilee party to represent the people of Ainabkoi Constituency.
Peter Masara
Masara, who is the Suna West MP, won the seat on an independent ticket in the last elections after the party denied him the ticket twice.
He beat ODM’s Joseph Ndiege, despite the fanatical support the party enjoys in the region. party.
Mohammed Ali
Nyali MP Mohammed Ali’s victory in the 2017 elections was one of the most publicised political contests. The former KTN investigative journalist trounced favourite Said Abdalla Salim.
Prior to the elections, Mohammed Ali had controversially lost the ODM Party nominations to the then Nyali MP but he later declared that he would contest as an independent candidate.
Ali would later launch complaints indicating the primaries had been marred with deep and blatant irregularities that clearly favoured Said Abdalla Salim.
He also won two appeals against his victory, one in the High Court and the other in the Court of Appeal where the judge found that the voter who filed the petition failed to prove his case.
