Chepkut, Mishra swept aside by UDA wave in North Rift
The one-term jinx has come back to haunt MPs in two constituencies in President-Elect William Ruto’s Uasin-Gishu backyard where his UDA party swept the slate clean.
Despite spirited and well-oiled campaigns, luck was not on the side of flamboyant Kesses MP Swarup Mishra and his Ainabkoi counterpart William Chepkut.
Chepkut, a former personal assistant to former powerful Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott, beat then parliamentary legal affairs committee chairman Samuel Chepkonga of Jubilee Party in the 2017 election.
He had run as an independent candidate.
Interestingly, it is Chepkonga who floored Chepkut in last week’s election.
Chepkut is known for his public theatrics and comedy.
In some public events, Chepkut would be seen sitting on the ground with the members of the public.
Not even his pleas to his constituents to re-elect him because he was admitted to hospital for the better part of this year could secure him the seat.
“People say I’m fighting the Deputy President, but they should be reminded that I was the first one who complained when his security was withdrawn from his Karen residence,” Chepkut, who vied as an independent, said in his constituency in the run-up to the election.
Chepkonga garnered 26,479 votes against Chepkut’s 13,510.
Also failing to break the one-term jinx is Mishra Swarup in Kesses who, despite his philanthropic activities and development projects in the constituency was swept way by the UDA wave.
Mishra (pictured) who had fallen out with DP Ruto opted to vie as an independent candidate but lost to UDA candidate Julius Ruto. Ruto garnered 32,839 votes against Mishra’s 21,404 votes to be declared the winner.
Mishra made history by being the first person of Asian origin to be elected MP in a Kalenjin dominated region when he beat incumbent James Bett on a Jubilee Party ticket in 2017.
