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Nine of 11 Nakuru MPs retain seats in euphoric wins

UDA bags most of the elective seats in the county as red turns yellow

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by LOISE MACHARIA

News13 August 2022 - 02:00
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In Summary


  • Only Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama retained his seat for a third term with 34,899 votes against UDA's Daniel Kamau who managed 29,343 votes.
  • Bahati's Kimani Ngunjiri is also the only UDA parliamentary candidate in the county who lost his seat.
Nakuru Town East UDA MP-elect David Gikaria and former Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri at Nakuru Boys High School County Tallying Centre.

Nine MPs in the 11 constituencies of Nakuru retained their seats as the county that was a Jubilee stronghold turned yellow.

The only difference being they won on different parties from the one that took them to Parliament in 2017.

The populous county was painted yellow with MPs-elect Jayne Kihara (Naivasha), Martha Wangari (Gilgil), David Gikaria (Nakuru Town East), Samuel Gachobe (Subukia) and Charity Gathambi (Njoro) sailing through on UDA party tickets.

Other UDA candidates who retained their seats are Molo's Kuria Kimani and Joseph Tonui of Kuresoi South.

The legislators had won their seats in 2017 through Jubilee Party before defecting to UDA following a fallout between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

Only Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama managed to retain his seat for a third term with 34,899 votes against his main opponent UDA's Daniel Kamau who managed 29,343 votes.

The other Jubilee MP-elect is Irene Njoki, a political newcomer who beat veteran politician Kimani Ngunjiri.

The career civil servant who resigned from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure garnered 34,308 votes against Ngunjiri's 26,809 votes.

The other person who was sent packing is long-serving Kuresoi North MP Moses Cheboi, who is also former National Assembly Deputy Speaker.

Surprisingly, Cheboi was trounced by his political mentee, a charcoal dealer whom he groomed into leadership.

Former Sirikwa MCA Alfred Mutai was a charcoal dealer before Cheboi helped him clinch the MCA position in 2017.

Mutai took a step of faith and vied against Cheboi during the UDA party primaries ahead of the August 9 General Election.

He beat him at the primaries and then again during the general election to clinch the parliamentary position. Mutai got 25,365 votes against Cheboi's 20,395 votes.

Rongai is Nakuru's 11th constituency but MP elections in the area were suspended due to a mix up of ballot papers.

It was also the only constituency that had a non-Jubilee MP as it was represented by Kanu's Raymond Moi.

Moi's main challenger was UDA's Paul Cheboi and they are set to face off during the by-election scheduled  for August 23.

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