The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has overturned the nomination results where Naivasha Member of Parliament Jane Kihara, an ally of Deputy President William Ruto had lost to a former legislator.
In a statement released by the party on April 18, it was disclosed that the matter was determined by the party's Electoral and Nomination Dispute Resolution Committee (ENDRC).
The committee led by the chairperson, Emannuel Mumia determined that Kihara garnered 9,904 votes beating her closest competitor John Kihagi by a solitary vote. According to the team, Kihagi got 9,903 votes.
"The Committee finds that when the results from the aforementioned polling stations are added to the final tally, which the Committee has confirmed to be 9852 votes for Kihagi and 9824 votes for Kihara, the result is that Kihagi garnered 9,903 votes to Kihara's 9904 votes," determined the committee.
Upon losing to Kihagi in the April 14 nominations, the ardent critic of President Uhuru Kenyatta claimed that there was external influence in the process. In particular, she cited the recruitment of returning officers managing the polls.
“We should give Naivasha residents a chance to elect their representatives in the UDA nominations and we shall not entertain influence from outsiders,” she stated then
Additionally, UDA revealed that they had received a total of 115 disputes with a majority of complaints emanating from county assembly aspirants.
"The Registry has so far received a total of 115 disputes. 94 of these are drawn from aspiring Members of County Assembly seats, 34 of the cases have so far been dispensed with, 24 results have been nullified and there were orders for a recount in four wards. The rest of the cases are yet to be heard and determined.
"The Committee urges those dissatisfied with the outcome to take necessary lawful action through the appellate processes established by the law. A detailed breakdown of the cases filed will be published in due course," read the statement in part.
UDA is yet to complete the nomination process with select counties expected to conduct their primaries from April 20 - 21 after some of the exercises was postponed due to chaos.
Some of the aspirants who lost in primaries have already ditched the party, including Embu Senator, Njeru Ndwiga who has declared his intention to vie as an independent candidate.
Ruto is expected to meet all aspirants in the coming week to contain the growing disquiet within the party and avert a looming fallout.
