The battle for the Kibra parliamentary seat has finally culminated with ODM candidate Imran Okoth securing top place ahead of Jubilee’s McDonald Mariga and Eliud Owalo of ANC, who were his closet rivals. Okoth garnered 24,636 votes, Mariga garnered 11,230 votes and Owalo got 5,275 votes. Ford Kenya candidate Khamisi Butichi got a distant 260 votes.
The results were from 183 polling stations, and a total of 41,984 votes were cast out of 118,658 voters, representing a voter turnout of 35.38%. IEBC confirmed Okoth’s victory on Friday morning after official counting started after polling stations were closed on Thursday evening. The ODM candidate thanked Kibra residents for voting for him, adding that money can’t buy leadership. “Even if we are poor in Kibra, the people here know what they want,” he said, “And my pledge to you is that I won’t let you down, I’ll serve you with all my heart without favoritism, corruption.”
He also thanked all leaders from different parties who have supported him throughout the by election campaign period. He extended an olive branch to his competitors, saying the race wasn’t meant to bring competition among them, and urged them to unite and serve Kibra residents.
Hours before Okoth’s confirmed victory, Mariga called him to congratulate him on his victory. He acknowledged that the campaigns and by-election were peaceful and proposed they meet after the whole by election process, “When the election is over we should go back to our past life of friendship,” he said. Imran acknowledged the congratulatory call in a tweet.