Taita Taveta
Governor John Mruttu has lost the
ODM nomination to National Assembly minority whip Thomas Mwadeghu.
Provisional results showed Mwadeghu
garnered 17,567
votes against
Mruttu's 14,817
to clinch the party's ticket ahead of the August 8 general election.
Returning officer Lawrence Sampele announced the totals on Wednesday but did not give a breakdown.
Before the board released the figures, it was reported that
Mruttu got 3,628 votes while
Mwadeghu got 4,417
in Wundanyi.
In Taveta, he got
5,112 votes while
Mwadeghu was backed by 1,181 voters.
The Governor got
3,950 votes in
Voi where
Mwadeghu garnered 4,197.
In Mwatate,
Mruttu polled 3,221 votes while
Mwadeghu got 8,626.
These figures add up to 15,911 for Mruttu and 18,421 for Mwadeghu.
Before Sampele's announcement,
Mwadeghu said:
"Nimemshinda na tunahimiza election board itoe matokeo ya Mwatate haraka kwa maana hiyo ndio inaleta shida."
This loosely translates to: "I defeated him. I urge the board to quickly release the results for Mwatate as there lies the problem.)
But Mruttu said some centres were not opened preventing his supporters from voting for him.
"Vituo karibu sita zilifungwa... [watu] wanaona ni kama walifungiwa ili wasihusiane na hilo zoezi," he said.
(About six polling stations were shut. The people believe they were kept from voting.)
On Tuesday, Mruttu
the party was ill-prepared for the nominations.
Jones Mwahima beat
Richard Tairo in the senator nomination after getting 21,037
votes against his 11,048.
Anisa Mwakio
beat
Anastasia Wakesho
for the woman representative ticket
with 16,238
against the latter's 14,684.
The board will repeat elections at five polling stations on
Saturday.
The Returning Officer cancelled the exercises due to heavy rain.