A parliamentary aspirant who is facing charges of defiling the daughter one a prominent Rift Valley Cabinet Secretary has cried foul after he lost the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) nominations under unclear circumstances.
Reuben Kiborek, took an early lead in the nominations for the Mogotia parliamentary seat - even earning congratulatory messages from his opponents.
However, On Friday evening April 15, vote counting was suspended under unclear circumstances prompting fears of vote-rigging in the primaries.
On Saturday afternoon, incumbent MP Daniel Tuitoek was declared the winner and handed the UDA ticket by the constituency returning officer.
The results indicated that Daniel had scooped a total of 9,662 votes before Kiborek who garnered 9,469 votes.
The move drew protests in Mogotio with Kiboren immediately addressing a rally of his supporters where he accused the UDA election officials of manipulating the results.
The youthful politicians' allies took to social media where they blamed a CS from the region for the vote manipulation. The CS is a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto and Kiburen's former employer.
The two fell out two years ago after the Mogotia parliamentary hopeful was arrested and charged with defiling the CS daughter who was a minor at the time. The case is still ongoing.
"We want to tell Kenyans that on April 14 we were expecting fair results, but the returning officer who is a friend of the current MP tried to interfere with the goodwill of these good people of Mogotio and rigged our election.
"But we say we are very peaceful people and we love you Deputy President William Ruto. But there are some people who want to use that goodwill to manipulate the will of the people. We are waiting for the party's decision but it is our wish that we go for a re-run so that we beat these guys thoroughly," he stated.
The youthful lawmaker further threatened to run as an independent candidate if UDA failed to honour his demands on the party's primaries.
"If the party doesn't give us a re-run let them give us our certificate and they cannot give us a re-run or the certificate, let them know they cannot compromise the will of the people."
In 2017, Kiborek conceded defeat to the incumbent MP who clinched the seat on the Jubilee Party ticket.
