•During a nominations exercise held on Saturday, Chege received 7,826 votes beating 13 other aspirants.
•The second runner-up was Titus Mbuchu who garnered 5,335 and was followed by Injinia Stephen Mwaura who garnered 4, 414 votes.
Image: Alice Waithera
Chege Njuguna has been nominated as the UDA party candidate for Kandara constituency by-elections.
During a nominations exercise held on Saturday, Chege received 7,826 votes beating 13 other aspirants.
The second runner-up was Titus Mbuchu who garnered 5,335 and was followed by Injinia Stephen Mwaura who garnered 4, 414 votes.
Maina Kamau who deputized former Murang’a governor Mwangi wa Iria got 2,191 votes while media personality Waithira Muithirania got 1,267 votes.
Waithira vied for the woman representative position under the Jubilee Party during the general elections but lost to Betty Maina who is a member of UDA.
On his part, Njuguna vied for the MP seat under the Chama Cha Kazi party and emerged second after immediate former MP Alice Wahome who is now Water Cabinet Secretary.
There have been complaints among the aspirant that Wahome had a preferred candidate who she was pushing for the ticket.
Last week, Wahome who visited the constituency to launch a tree planting programme that will see locals plant 20 million trees over the next five years said the party is keen to retain the seat.
Without publicly announcing her preferred candidate, Wahomestated that locals know what her stand is but emphasized the need for them to vote for a progressive leader.
“You know I was voted in through the UDA party and the government does not want to let go of that seat,” she said.
National Elections Board chairperson Anthony Mwaura last week met the aspirants, assuring them that the nominations exercise will be transparent and will be conducted in a free and fair manner.
The exercise saw a significantly low number of voters turn out to vote despite having about 105,148 registered voters.
In some stations, it started as late as 10 am after the party experienced hitches rolling it out.
On Friday, a member of the party’s elections board Salome Baiko had assured residents that the exercise would kick off at 7 am and that results would be announced by the end of the day.
But on Saturday morning, Baiko said the party experienced challenges after more than the needed clerks turned up.
Chege will battle it out with about 26 other candidates during the by-elections set to be held on January 5 next year.
The nominations will likely determine who will be elected as the MP owing to the popularity of the party region.
UDA party won with a landslide in the Mt. Kenya region during the general elections and bagged all seven MP seats, woman representative, senator and governor positions in Murang’a County.