Likuyani Member of Parliament (MP) Dr Enoch Kibunguchy has retained the Likuyani constituency seat after narrowly defeating his closest rival, Dr Evans Nabwera Taracha, in a hotly contested election.
According to official results released by Constituency Returning Officer at Nangili Girls Secondary school on Friday evening, Mr Enoch Otara, the Likuyani incumbent MP emerged victorious with 15,810 votes against Taracha’s 14,901.
The difference between the two was 909 votes.
However, Taracha has disputed the results, claiming the tallying process was riddled with election malpractices.
Addressing members of the press immediately the results were announced, Taracha alleged he had won the parliamentary seat according to cumulative results tallied by his agents across all the polling stations in Likuyani Sub County.
“Results collated by my agents in conjunctions with Amani National Congress (ANC) agents indicated I garnered a total of 15,333 votes against Kibunguchy’s 15,316,” claimed Taracha, who revealed he was headed to the court over the same.
Taracha, who until he joined elective politics in 2017 was Director of Research at Kenya National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi, assured journalists he had sufficient evidence which would compel the Judiciary to overturn Likuyani parliamentary results.
He has meanwhile appealed to his supporters to remain calm as he seeks justice through the courts.
However the constituency Returning officer has dismissed Taracha’s claims and instead insisted the election exercise was conducted in a fair and transparent manner.
“The election exercise was conducted fairly in all the 120 polling stations in Likuyani constituency,” said Otara, further insisting Kibunguchy was bonafide winner of the parliamentary seat.
He, however, noted Taracha was free to seek recourse to the courts.
Efforts to get comments from Kibunguchy were fruitless as he didn’t address members of public including the media before leaving the venue.
Elsewhere, residents of Likuyani have voted new faces to the Kakamega
County Assembly.
Immediate county majority leader, Robert Makhanu was shown the door by Josphat Kititi Mwasame, who is Member of County Assembly (MCA) elect for Kongoniward.
In other elections, Brian Mafunga was elected as the new MCA for
Likuyani ward after flooring the incumbent Timothy Likuyani Ingosi, while Kennedy Kilwake and Antony Wabuge are new county assembly reps for Sango and Sinoko wards after defeating Timothy Mulanda Tali and Kakamega county assembly chief whip Hilton Luvai respectively.
Dickson Bitungu Ombayo was the only MCA from Likuyani Sub County in the first county assembly of Kakamega to retain his Nzoia ward seat.
