Muguga Ward UDA candidate concedes defeat

Kamau Thumbi, the UDA candidate for Muguga Ward, has conceded defeat after losing the hotly contested race to Jubilee’s Githinji Mung’ara by 27 votes.

Thumbi thanked his supporters and congratulated the new winner in a statement issued on Friday, acknowledging that it was not his day.

“My good friends and family, I take this opportunity to thank each one of you for the great unwavering support you have bestowed on me during the just ended Muguga ward by-elections,” He wrote on Facebook In every competition, there must be a winner. This was not my time so I take this opportunity to congratulate the winner and wish him well.”

In his statement, he claimed that their tally had produced different results, but that the party had chosen to follow the IEBC’s declaration.

“Though all our tallies showed a different result, we embrace the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(|EBC) declaration,” he said “UDA believes when you lose an election, you accept. KT keep your eyes on the goal.”

Meanwhile, the high stakes Kiambaa by election is yet to be called after the IEBC halted the tallying process over an alleged vote-count irregularity.

This came after the Jubilee candidate for Kiambaa and his supporters stormed the polling station, claiming a vote-counting irregularity.

At the time, Jubilee’s Kariri Njama was second with 21,057 votes, while UDA’s Wanjiku John was first with 21,301 votes cast from the 152 out of 154 polling stations whose votes had been tallied.

Kariri and his supporters demanded a recount of votes from the Muchatha and Kawaida nursery polling stations, saying there was mischief in ballot boxes from two polling stations.

“You see, they had announced results earlier, wakasema Wanjiku was at 21, 301 and Kariri was at 21,057, kwenda kuangalia tena tunapata Wanjiku ameongezewa kura, hizi kura wametoa wapi, the Presiding officer is misleading us,”Kariri said on Friday.

At 6 a.m., the Returning Officer, Peter Muigai, acknowledged a snag in the tallying process and declared an indefinite suspension of vote-tallying.

The UDA party had already declared the election on Thursday night, with a photo of its candidate beaming from ear to ear alongside DP Ruto and Senator Hassan Omar going viral on Twitter.