UDA CANDIDATE WHO WAS POSITION 3 HANDED NOMINATION CERTIFICATE

After long-day protests over denied victory in the just concluded United Democratic Alliance (UDA) nominations, Erick Gichane, the aspirant for Juja ward MCA position has finally been declared the winner and handed over the nomination certificate.

Gichane’s challenger, David Macharia who emerged number three with 749 votes had been declared the winner in a move that elicited sharp criticism and peaceful protests from his supporters who demanded recounting of votes to be done.

After protesting at the tallying centre, it later emerged that there was a keying error that saw Gichane’s votes swapped with Macharia’s.

Gichane was later declared the winner of the ward UDA nomination exercise with 767 votes, a new development that resulted in jubilation from his supporters who had camped at the tallying centre all day.

In his remarks, Gichane lauded UDA party officials for according him a fair hearing and allowing democracy to prevail saying he was ready to better the social-economic status of Juja residents and he expressed optimism that they will stamp his win as he faces candidates from other parties in August 9 polls.

“We had our tallying centre and we could use the results submitted by my agents to know how we are faring. After doing the final tally, we compared with other contestants and found out that we had won with 18 votes. It later emerged that I was pushed to number three, which was very disappointing but democracy has finally prevailed,” he said.

Interestingly, Macharia, the man who had erroneously been declared the winner accepted the new outcome and agreed to work with Gichane for the betterment of Juja adding that he would not leave the party.

“I am ready to work with Gichane. We have established where the error was and from the development, I will now support him and other UDA candidates from the bottom all the way to the presidency,” Macharia said.

In the same constituency, residents expressed their displeasure in the constituency and announced results claiming that Prof Joseph Kang’ethe was rigged out in favour of George Koimburi.

While Koimburi was declared the winner after garnering 6,790 against his challenger Kang’ethe who followed closely with 4,257 in results announced by the party returning officer Assumpta Njambi Mwangi, a section of residents said the exercise was marred by massive irregularities.

Courtesy