How two icons defied Azimio wave in Nyanza stronghold to retain seats
For the third time, two parliamentary candidates have weathered the ODM party clout in the Nyanza region to retain their seats in the just-concluded General Election.
The two are Kisumu East MP Shakeel Shabir and his Ugenya counterpart David Ochieng, who ran on a Movement for Democracy and Growth (MDG) party ticket.
Despite a rigorous campaign for a six-piece voting style in Nyanza, the two legislators managed to turn the tides and emerge victorious in the election yet again. Shakeel trounced Nicholas Oricho of ODM party for the second time to recapture the seat on an independent ticket.
The legislator, who is making his way to Parliament for the fourth time, garnered a total of 35,704 votes while Oricho got 28,491 votes.
In the 2017 General Election, Shakeel also floored Oricho to defend his seat as an independent candidate, garnering 32,237 votes.
Nominations debacle
The former Kisumu city mayor was aggrieved by the outcome of the last ODM party nominations.
On his part, Ochieng, who is the MDG party leader, outwitted ODM’s Daniel Odhiambo in this year’s polls to retain the parliamentary seat.
Ochieng garnered 25,520 votes while Odhiambo got 22,828 votes.
The duo’s dividends paid off yet again, even as other constituencies heeded the six-piece voting system championed by ODM party leaders.
In spirited campaigns to secure more elective political seats for the Orange party, its leader Raila Odinga, joined by his allied politicians, sustained a clarion call to Nyanza residents to elect only ODM candidates. But supporters of Shakeel and Ochieng’ apparently defied this call.
In his tour of the region recently, Raila made a passionate appeal to the residents to vote for the party candidates as a way of standing with him.
“I appeal to you to vote for ODM candidates because they are my foot soldiers. We also want the party to remain strong,” he said recently.
