Wetang'ula floors Ruto in Bungoma’s Kenya Kwanza sibling rivalry
Ford Kenya candidate Wafula Wakoli has won the Bungoma senate seat by-election after garnering 66,032 votes.
Mr Wakoli was followed by President William Ruto's UDA candidate Mwambu Mabonga who got 45,907 votes while Wafula Wamunyinyi of Azimio came third with 20,519 votes.
The County Elections manager formally announced Mr Wakoli as the winner shortly after 12:30pm.
The results were announced by returning officers for Webuye East, Kimilili, Kabuchai, Tongaren, Kanduyi, Webuye West and Sirisia.
Wakoli Wafula of Ford Kenya Party, after he won the Bungoma Senate seat by-election.
Mr Wakoli posted the biggest margin in the results in the results in Kabuchai constituency, where he got 11,728 votes to emerge in the lead and was followed by Mr Mabonga who got 2,824 while Mr Wamunyinyi had 1,150 votes.
In Tongaren, Mr Wakoli made a strong showing in the mini-poll by garnering 9,051 votes while Mr Mabonga came second with 4,057 votes.
Mr Wamunyinyi was third with 2,393 votes.
A win for Mr Wakoli in the by-election will be a huge relief to Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang’ula who spearheaded the campaigns to ensure his party reclaimed the seat which fell vacant after he resigned from the senate seat.
The early results are a strong indication of the massive support Ford Kenya continues to enjoy in Bungoma County.
Results from Webuye East constituency gave Mr Wakoli a head start after he got 4,969 votes while Mr Mabonga garnered 2,639 votes. Mr Wamunyinyi got 1,665 votes.
Results for Sirisia constituency showed that Mr Wakoli had garnered 4,198 votes and Mr Mabonga, his closest competitor came second with 3,497 votes while Mr Wamunyinyi got 921 votes from the constituency.
The supremacy battles for Western Kenya politics played out in the race for the Bungoma senate seat which pitted Ford Kenya against UDA and Azimio candidates.
There were eleven candidates in the race for the Bungoma senate seat but the front runners were from Ford Kenya, UDA and Azimio.
On Thursday, the by-election was marred by a low voter turnout in the 1,373 polling stations spread in the nine constituencies.
Bungoma County has 646,612 registered voters but only a small number of voters turned up at polling stations to cast their ballots.
During the campaigns, Mr Wetang’ula and Principal Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi told voters in Bungoma not to gamble by electing a candidate from a rival party.
“This seat belonged to Ford Kenya and since Mr Wetang’ula resigned to become the Speaker of the National Assembly, it’s only logical that a Ford Kenya candidate deserves to be elected as the senator for Bungoma,” said Mr Muadavadi in one of the campaign rallies.
Given the early results, it appears voters in Bungoma County heeded calls by Mr Wetang’ula to back Mr Wakoli as their senator.
