Nakuru East Parliamentary candidate, David Gikaria, who was caught on camera fighting his opponent on the polling day, has retained his seat on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket.
Gikaria garnered 30,210 votes, defeating his rival, former Member of County Assembly, Joel Kairo, of the Jubilee Party who got 25,965 votes.
While issuing his victory speech outside the tallying centre, Gikaria lauded his supporters for voting in large numbers to beat his opponent by a 4,245 margin.
He urged his competitors to accept the results and join him in transforming the lives of Nakuru East residents.
"We have been praying and placing lots of efforts on the ground. I want to thank the UDA party for according me the opportunity to vie for the Nakuru East seat. To my supporters, you did not disappoint as you came out in large numbers.
"To my worthy competitors, know that in every competition there is a winner and a loser and no draw in this political game. To those who lost, let us join hands so that we can work together. In another ward, a Jubilee aspirant got the seat, I called him to congratulate him because we accept the will of the people," Gikaria stated.
According to Nakuru police boss, Peter Mwanzo, the MP-elect had been involved in an altercation on Tuesday, August 9, where he fought his opponent at Lanet polling station and allegedly sent goons to Naka Primary School polling station to disrupt the process.
"On Wednesday, August 10, he (Gikaria) appeared at the Lanet polling centre where he fought a fellow candidate. Later on in the afternoon, at Naka polling centre, he sent a group suspected to be goons but were chased away by police,” Mwanzo told the press.
A video highlighting the scuffle showed police officers in a heated physical confrontation with the Legislator who was reported to have become rowdy after he was denied a replacement ballot for the Governor's seat.
"We arrested him after he assaulted and injured a voter. He has also caused a lot of commotion and disturbance at the polling station and we are not going to allow that,” Mwanzo stated at the time.
After the arrest, the UDA politician was released a day later on a Ksh50,000 bond.
