It was a bruising battle for the Kimilili Jubilee ticket for the MCA post which had attracted three hopefuls, the incumbent David Barasa alias Webuye Juakali, Robert Simiyu alias Matress and Ben Mirigo. Robert Simiyu eventually emerged victorious.
He garnered 758 votes against Barasa’s 378 votes, with Ben Mirigo trailing with 180 votes in the exercise that was concluded late on Tuesday.
While conceding defeat David Barasa expressed his concerns over the way the polls were carried out saying seven polling stations which he claims were his strongholds did not vote, an issue he says largely affected the results causing his loss.
He dislosed that he had written a protest letter to the Jubilee party to have the polls be repeated as he is sure he will clinch the ticket very easy if all the Jubilee party members in the ward are given a chance to vote.
However, the winner, Robert Simiyu rubbished off the claims saying he should just accept the defeat and support him so that he clinches the post in August, saying the people of Kimilili have shown that there is a need for change in leadership.
He accused Barasa of having neglected the people of Kimilili during their time of need saying he has always been helping them and is ready to work for them if elected as the next MCA in the August polls which he said is optimistic of winning.
In the parliamentary seat, Didmus Wekesa Barasa trounced three other aspirants by garnering 1972 votes followed by engineer John Wenyaa who got 972 votes followed by Joe Khaemba who got 392 votes as Rose Natecho got 338 votes.
Didmus thanked all his supporters for having turned up in large numbers to vote for him and also called upon the aspirants he had trounced to work with him to ensure Jubilee party clinches the seat in the august polls.
He, however, said he is not celebrating yet as he is waiting fo the real battle in August, citing that he is waiting for the NASA candidates whom he says will have to face it rough as he has always been on the ground even after not making it in 2013.
“I call upon the people of Kimilili to maintain peace and give every leader an opportunity to campaign but in the end, they will be able to choose a leader that will help to positively address their issues,” he said.
In Tongaren constituency, John Murumba Chikati floored Ben Chekwanda in Jubilee nominations for the parliamentary seat after getting 13,016 votes as Chekwanda settled for 4,076 votes.