Incumbents romp to nomination victory in ODM strongholds

It was a smooth comeback for incumbents in the ongoing ODM  party primaries.

All sitting elected leaders who have been subjected to the ballot have beaten their rivals to clinch the ticket ahead of the August 9 polls.

In Siaya, all four incumbent MPs emerged victorious in the nominations.

MPs Sam Atandi (Alego Usonga), Elisha Odhiambo (Gem), Gideon Ochanda (Bondo) and Christine Ombaka (Woman Representative) were all declared winners after the hotly contested polls.

The four, according to ODM commissioned polls, were leading with a small gap hence the decision to subject them to the ballot.

In the results declared by the party's National Election Board, Ochanda garnered 10,771 votes with his closest challenger John Andiwo Mwai coming second with 4,967 votes.

In Alego Usonga, Atandi seems to be on course to break the one-term jinx  after he floured his competitors university don Nicholus Kut and nominated MP  Jaqueline Oduol.

Atandi got 17,789 votes followed by Kut 3,350 and Oduol came a distant third with 542 votes.

In Atandi’s Alego Usonga, no MP has been re-elected in the office since the advent of  multi-party politics in Kenya.

In Gem constituency, Odhiambo also a first term legislator, bagged the ODM ticket after beating his main challenger George Jalang’o Midiwo with slightly over 1,000 votes.

Odhiambo got 7,405 against Midiwo’s 6,384 votes.

Atandi described the contest free and fair lauding the NEB for a job well done.

“We did not expect that the elections would turn out  this way, but the elections were conducted in a free, fair and competent manner,” he said.

Ochanda on his part thanked the Orange party for allowing voters to directly participate in the elections of the candidates.

“A direct participation by the people is the simplest thing that we really need to be doing. Elections are personal and people want to participate directly,” the Bondo MP said.

Other incumbents facing nomination include, Adipo Okuome (Karachuonyo), Martin Owino (Ndhiwa), Peter Masara (Suna West), Onyango Koyoo (Muhoroni), Aduma Owuor (Nyakach) and Fred Ouda (Kisumu Central).

Even as the winners were celebrating the exercise, losers were on the other hand struggling to come to terms with the outcome.

The exercise was largely peaceful, a departure from past nominations that were marred by chaos.

Atandi’s main challenger Kut on Thursday claimed that his strongholds experienced unexplained delays something he noted could have contributed to his dismal performance.

“In Alego-Usonga for instance, delays in voting were reported, mostly  in my strongholds," Kut said. 

The university don cited polling stations in South East Alego ward, where he said there were delays  reported at Nyan'ganga and Ochilo polling stations.

 "Even the results for Ochilo are yet to be announced more than 12 hours after the party released the official results for the constituency," he said.

“In some of the areas where I am popular, few  gadgets,  which had no tally with the number of registered voters per polling, were deployed." 

Kut also questioned the recruitment of election officials which he said was biased towards his competitor.

“The distribution was skewed to favour the incumbent.  At Segere, Boro, Liganwa, with higher voter population, single kits were deployed," he said.

"As an aspirant, we didn't have the opportunity to meet and discuss rules of engagement. The identity of returning officers was also kept secret."

Gem ODM nomination loser Jalang’o Midiwo also poked holes on the Wednesday exercise calling on NEB to cancel the entire exercise.

"We have raised a number of issues in the petition which we need the tribunal to listen to and find that the nomination was a nullity," he said

Amongst the issues Midiwo pointed out in his petition was an incident where police arrested over  15 people.

The officers reportedly confiscated a hand grenade, teargas canisters, guns, pangas, handcuffs and assorted crude weapons at Ndegwe polling centre in North Gem on Wednesday.

(Edited by Francis Wadegu)