Jubilee is smarting from a humiliating and embarrassing defeat by the Raila led Orange Democratic Movement. ODM prevailed against all odds in crushing Jubilee’s well oiled campaign where taxpayer resources were splashed on the people of Malindi, with an estimated Sh800m being burnt by Jubilee. And the gap was large enough to neutralize Jubilee’s rigging attempts.
Mr Willy Mtengo scored an overwhelming 13,732 votes to easily trounce Jubilee Alliance Party’s Philip Charo who got a paltry 8,488 votes as of 10:43pm. Analaysts wonder what would have happened had Jubilee not had the state machinery at its disposal. Deputy President William Ruto, aka tumetenga camped in Malindi handing out brown envelopes to locals.
Uhuru lived at State House Mombasa for a week to try and win over the Coastals to his failed cause. The result was a crushing 70% landslide defeat by the opposition. The margins of Jubilee defeat just got wider, and patterns remain the same, with CORD voter enthusiasm intensifying, as exhibited by the massive voter registration in cord strongholds.
Jubilee in an attempt to conceal its rigging efforts, unleashed a massive police presence, replete with military hardware, including military Humvee-es, intended to intimidate and scare away wananchi from turning out to vote. Heated exchanges between leaders from the two sides were witnessed as the KDF, General Service Unit (GSU), the Administration Police, Regular Police and Prisons officers were called upon to maintain security.
Mr Mtengo led in all the four wards of Jilore, Kakuyuni, Ganda and Malindi Town, including Charo’s own home polling station. He led right from the beginning, increasing his margin over the JAP candidate as more results streamed in. Analysts interviewed describe this as a rejection of Uhuru Kenyatta’s bad economic policies that have discouraged Coastals from embracing the oppressive Jubilee regime, which views themselves as being colonized by Mt. Kenya via defunct provincial adminstration led by Wilson Marwa, who was charged with leading this state sanctioned operation intended to subjugate the will of the Malindi people. But he failed miserably.
Jubilee sponsored spoilers also had their share of defeat by Raila’s ODM, with Labour Party of Kenya’s Attas Shariff Ali garnering a third most votes with 1,280 votes, Kadu-Asili’s Reuben Katana (320), Social Party of Kenya’s David Kithunga (57), Nelson Gunga Benjamin of Federal Party of Kenya (32) and Chama Cha Uzalendo’s Peter Ponda 22 votes with 13 polling stations remaining to be counted. Mr Gunga and Mr Ponda had withdrawn from the race though, in favor of the Jubilee candidate.
Counting of votes in most polling stations was delayed by complaints from party agents and MPs who spotted State House agents, with brown envelopes..
Some 23,219 out of a total of 56,066 voters had turned to vote in the by-elections whose campaigns attracted key leaders from both sides of the political divide.
Deputy President William Ruto, Nairobi senator Mike Sonko and NA Majority Leader Aden Duale literally camped in Malindi for Jubilee campaigns while former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his CORD counterpart Kalonzo Musyoka once in a while showed up to campaign for the ODM candidate.
GSU officers patrolled the streets of Malindi town and its environs.
This heavy presence of security officers, even in villages, appeared to irritate opposition politicians with Kilifi governor Amason Kingi remarking that it made Malindi look like ISIS territory, with guns and military trucks everywhere.
This is crushing defeat of Jubilee is a continuation of a nationwide trend in which JAP is yet to win a seat outside Jubilee strongholds of Kikuyu/Kalenjin strongholds. ODM swept Kajiado byelection despite Uhuru appointing Nkaissery to head the powerful Interior Ministry.
And Now Malindi is a vindication of JAP’s inability to expand beyond its 2013 voting patterns of Kalenjin land and Central. DP Ruto struggled in his home-turf of Kericho, whose results have been rejected by KANU, citing massive anomalies in tallying, with vote numbers from Sang’s home-turf of Belgut being subdued.
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