Omondi’s brother wins Jubilee nomination in Kahawa Wendani
A brother to former Kahawa Wendani ward representative, the late Cyrus Omondi has won the Jubilee party nomination beating 10 others.
Kevin Odhiambo 36, got 400 votes to capture the party ticket with his closest opponent Brian Simiyu garnering 236 votes in the exercise marked by a low voter turn out.
Odhiambo who is Omondi's younger brother will now face off with five other contestants in the December 25 by-election
Announcing the results at Kahawa Wendani Primary School, the returning officer Kanja Njau said only 1,180 out of the 16,000 registered voters turned out, which is 7.4 per cent.
The Kiambu Jubilee party Chairman Njoroge Kururia described the exercise as free and fair and expressed confidence that the ruling party would comfortably retain the seat in the forthcoming mini poll.
"The exercise was smooth and devoid of any ugly incidents. The people of Kahawa Wendani have spoken and we look forward to retaining the seat easily during the by-election," said Kururia who is also the Biashara ward MCA in Ruiru constituency.
Others who were gunning for the seat were Ben Mbugua, Bernard Karanja, Margaret Wanjiku, Risper Rutto, Kennedy Odhiambo, David Karimi, John Gachoka, Samuel Mboshe and Rose Karimi who, however, has since defected to PNU.
Other aspirants for the seat on different parties are Derrick Mbugua (Wiper Party), David Kebaso (Party of Economic Democracy), Eric Ouma (New Democrats Party) while Hellen Kiragu will be running as an independent candidate.
Kururia who cordinated the nomination had earlier explained that the party decided to give the Kahawa Wendani electorate a chance to pick a candidate of their choice rather than conduct a "boardroom nomination, hence the postponement of the polling from last Tuesday to Friday."
The nomination started nearly two hours late as the aspirants and polling officials deliberated on the modalities of voting.
The primaries were set to begin at 7 am in eight polling stations within the ward and end at 5 pm after which tallying took place.
"The ward is cosmopolitan with all Kenyan communities living here. We want the residents to pick the best candidate for the by-election," the chairman said and expressed confidence that Jubilee would comfortably win the mini poll.
Additional Reporting by Njange Maina
