Tabitha Karanja secures UDA ticket for Nakuru senate race

Keroche CEO Tabitha Karanja has won the UDA ticket for Nakuru senatorial seat with Lisa Chelule taking the woman representative seat.

The Keroche CEO trampled five other candidates to secure the ticket with 98,439 votes.

While accepting her nomination, Karanja, who recently adopted the name Keroche as her surname, thanked those who voted for her in the primaries for their confidence in her.

"I want to thank the Nakuru people in a special way for nominating me to be the flag bearer for the senate position in a UDA ticket, I am humbled and honoured."

Tabitha assured the electorate that she will work extra hard to secure the seat in the August polls.

The businesswoman cum politician exuded confidence that she will emerge victorious in the polls.

"I want to assure Nakuru people that I'm ready to face the other candidates in the Azimio and with your support, we will deliver the senate seat in the August 9 poll," she said.

The UDA nominee pledged to work with her competitors who lost to her  in the nominations to make sure that she secures the senate seat on August 9.

"I also want to thank my competitors for accepting defeat and I assure them that I will work with them because I know they have their manifesto which I will accommodate and together with mine we will make Nakuru what we have always wanted it to be."

Meanwhile, Lisa Chelule secured the UDA ticket for the Nakuru Woman representative seat .

Chelule thanked the people who took part in the nominations and voted for her.

She garnered 86,344 votes with her closest rival, Flora Kiprono, getting 56,022 votes.

Chelule also lauded the Nakuru people for maintaining peace during the primaries and asked them to continue with the same spirit during the August 9 elections.

She also extended an olive branch to her competitors to work with her so that they together they can deliver the seat to UDA.

The other aspirants in both the senator and Women rep seat have accepted defeat and agreed to work together with the winners.

The winners were announced on Saturday evening after consensus was reached as some candidates had contested the results.

The disenfranchised hopefuls, however, agreed to work with the victors after the deliberations for the good of the party.