• In 2017, ODM won 28 out of 30 ward seats in Mombasa.
• In Nyali constituency, UDA is giving ODM a run for their money in three wards.
The ODM party is set to lose its dominance at the county assembly in Mombasa after the just-concluded general election.
As results continue to stream in from different constituency tallying centres, a number of UDA MCA candidates have taken an early lead.
In 2017, ODM won 28 out of 30 ward seats in Mombasa.
However, with the shambolic ODM nominations conducted in April, a number of candidates felt short-changed, opting to run as independents.
Some who had sensed mischief in the nominations decamped in time to be on the ballot.
Mombasa is considered an ODM stronghold because outgoing Governor Hassan Joho is ODM's deputy party leader and a close associate of party leader Raila Odinga.
In Nyali constituency, UDA is giving ODM a run for their money in three wards.
UDA is poised to win Mkomani, Kongowea and Freetown ward seats, according to the latest results from IEBC.
Nyali, with 124,253 registered voters, has five wards-Mkomani, Kongowea, Kadzandani, Freetown, Ziwa la Ng'ombe and Kongowea.
The five seats attracted 76 candidates.
Kadzandani ward had 18 candidates followed by Ziwa la Ng'ombe with 17, Kongowea (14), Mkomani (14) and Freetown (18).
The constituency has 195 polling stations. By 12pm on Wednesday, constituency returning officer John ole Taiswa had verified and announced results from 30 stations.
In Mkomani ward, UDA candidate Gladys Chepkorir was already leading by a small margin against Eliud Kimari of ODM.
After the primaries, Kimari had to go to court to be issued with the ODM nomination certificate after the party's National Election Board allegedly denied him of his win in the nominations.
The certificate had been issued to Fredrick Oduor, who came in second but was allegedly ODM's party favourite.
Kimari, a first-time politician, had been facing backlash from staunch ODM supporters in the area, with many having doubts about voting for him.
This is likely to hand UDA's Chepkorir a win.
In Kongowea, Samuel Mwaura of UDA was by Wednesday neck and neck with ODM's Omar Abrari.
Abrari's fate is similar to Kimari's as he had to await the IEBC's dispute resolution committee to get his political lifeline back.
In 2017, Abrari got an overwhelming majority of votes in Kongowea after securing the ODM ticket.
He however fell out with the party and briefly accompanied Nyali MP Mohammed Ali along with colleagues Charles Kitula (Freetown ward), Raphael Bwire (Junda), Athman Shebe alias Mukono (Jomvu Kuu) and Fahad Kassim (Mjambere) to join Deputy President William Ruto's hustler camp in 2021.
Earlier this year, he returned to ODM, saying he had not officially resigned from the party, and he controversially won the ticket.
The certificate was however issued to Kevin Ondiek, who garnered 142 votes to emerge number seven, despite Abrari garnering close to 600 votes with his closest opponent having about 200 votes.
In Freetown, Kitula is in the lead as he defends his seat on the UDA ticket.
He was part of Joho's communications team during his first term in 2013 until he won the ODM party ticket to win the Freetown MCA seat in 2017.
He rose to the position of chief whip in the county assembly before he was dewhipped after falling out with the party.
Edited by A.N