Two Mandera governor candidates concede defeat as assembly Speaker leads

Mandera County Assembly Speaker Mohamed Adan Khalif is poised to win the governor’s race after two of his competitors conceded defeat.

Jubilee’s Adan Mohamed, alias Mohamed Jari, a former Cabinet Secretary, conceded a defeat on Thursday evening.

In his speech, Mr Mohamed wished the winner well, urging him to serve all residents of Mandera.

“We have come to the end of elections and new leaders have been elected and as usual there is a lot of noise that happens during campaigns and elections, a lot of allegations of mistrust, malpractices, but that said, on my own personal account I want to wish elected leaders well,” he said.

He added: “My message to the Mandera people is we maintain peace and we keep working together as a community that coexist within Mandera.”

He said five years was a short term for any community yearning development to engage in unnecessary political gimmicks.
Provisional results showed that Mr Khalif (UDM) has 53,185, Mr Hassan Noor Hassan (ODM) 40,443, Mr Mohamed 40,274 and Mr Ali Adan Noor (UDA) 1,700.

Mr Mohamed urged residents of Mandera to maintain peace and allow the new crop of leaders to serve them.

“The will of the people is always extremely important and this is the democratic space that everybody functions within. I am wishing everybody well,” he said. 

“Those elected are all our brothers and sisters, known to us well and we are allowing them the opportunity to serve the community.” 
Mr Hassan also conceded defeat and congratulated the winner.

“Elections come and go and we are here to accept the outcome of the same. We are looking forward to the unity of the Mandera community and provision of service to the entire county and I hope the county will be governed well,” he said.

Thanking his supporters, Mr Hassan said he was willing to support and work with the new governor.

“My team will always be available for any support in the leadership of Mandera County by the new team,” he said.

Mr Hassan was making his second attempt at the governor’s seat after he lost in 2017 to Governor Ali Roba.

Also poised to win is Governor Roba, who is leading in the Senate race.

He received 50,296 votes against his closest rival Mohamed Maalim Mohamud, who had 41,140. The incumbent senator ran as an independent.

Mr Mohamud conceded defeat on Wednesday.

He has been in politics for the past 15 years, serving as Mandera West MP for 10 years and senator in the last five.

With Governor Roba, they won against the council of elders-led negotiated democracy wave in 2017, only for each to head his own way in this year’s elections.

In the woman rep race, Ms Umulkheri Kassim (UDM) is leading with 58,090 votes, followed by Ms Uba Gedi (ODM) with 18,766.

All the three leading candidates for top seats in Mandera are running under the Governor Roba-founded United Democratic Movement (UDM).

The party has also won four parliamentary seats out of the possible six.

In Mandera East, Mr Omar Maalim, the incumbent running under UDM, lost to Mr Hussein Weytan of ODM, while in Lafey, Mr Abdi Mude, the incumbent running under UDM, lost to Mr Abdirahman Mohamed Abdi of Jubilee.

In Mandera South, Mr Ali Abdi, the Jubilee incumbent, lost to Mr Abdiwahab Kore of UDM.

MPs who retained their seats in Mandera all ran under UDM – Mr Bashir Abdullahi (Mandera North, Mr Kullow Maalim Hassan (Banisa) and Mr Adan Haji Yussuf (Mandera West).

County elections manager Adan Harar said results from the six constituencies were yet to be received.

“We are waiting for constituencies to report here before we begin our job [of announcing the results] at this centre. We have dispatched a helicopter to pick up the results and returning officers across the county,” Mr Harar said.