Teso's most populous ward recorded lowest voter turnout

@eosere

Malaba Central in Teso North had the highest number registered voters but recorded the lowest voter turnout during polls.

Of the 13,248 registered voters in the ward, only 8,108 cast their votes.

Some 5,140 (38.8 per cent) did not take part in electing the president, governor, senator, woman representative, MP and MCA.

Despite the ward being the smallest geographically, it is cosmopolitan and has a high concentration of voters in Malaba town, Teso North's largest urban establishment.

The winner of the MCA race, Ronald Ochalu of ODM won with 4,197 votes.

His closest challenger, outgoing MCA Bernard Papa of Wiper came in second with 2,296 votes.

Of the remaining 11 candidates, none managed to get more than 1,000 votes.

DAP-K's Simon Oruchum got 154 votes, UDA's Leonard Karakacha (359), Labour Party of Kenya Denis Imaet (61), while James Kangara of ANC got 232.

Independent candidates Oduor Oyengo and Melvin Otwane garnered 32 and 25 votes respectively.

Others in the race were Chrispinus Omuse of Movement for Democracy and Growth, who got 37 votes, Takia Mzinza of Farmers Party (182) while Ransley Wesonga of Usawa Kwa Wote got 74 votes.

Jubilee's Francis Omala garnered 23 votes as Abdikadir Said of United Progressive Alliance got 323.

Interestingly, neighbouring Malaba North ward posted the second highest number of people who did not turn out to vote.

The ward borders Malaba Central on the northern part of Malaba town.

In the ward where Wiper's Patrick Omanyala retained his seat, the voter turnout was 67 per cent.

Of the 8,401 registered voters in the ward, 5,637 voted on August 9 as 2,764 (33 per cent) stayed away.

There were eight candidates in the race for MCA.

Ang’urai North, Ang’urai East and Ang’urai South tied at position three of the wards that posted the lowest voter turn-out.

In the three wards 31 per cent of the total registered voters did not take part in the election.

In Ang’urai North ward, where DAP-K’s Isaac Wamalwa won, 7,002 out of the 10,148 registered voters took part in the polls while 3,146 stayed away.

In neighbouring Ang’urai East, only 5,341 of the 7,764 registered voters cast their ballots.

This implied 2,423 (31 per cent) did not participate in the election in which William Ruto was declared president-elect.

David Parapara of Maendeleo Chap Chap however won the race that had attracted 13 candidates.

The situation was replicated in Ang’urai South ward where again 31 per cent of those registered with the IEBC as voters failed to cast their votes on August 9.

In the ward where Knut secretary, Teso Branch Joseph Eseme (DAP-K) beat Grace Olita to clinch the MCA seat, 6,778 of the 9,821 registered voters managed to cast their votes as 3,043 stayed away from polling stations.

Malaba South posted the least number (in percentage) of voters who did not participate in the election.

In the ward, Boniface Ekada won the race that attracted six other candidates.

Of the 8,114 registered voters in the ward, 2,410 (30 per cent) did not participate in the election as 5,704 exercised their voting rights.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)