Jubilee Party sweeps key seats in Lamu County elections

Ms Ruweida Mohamed Obbo, the newly-elected Lamu woman rep who has won the seat on a Jubilee ticket. She defeated incumbent Woman Rep Shakilla Abdalla of Wiper. PHOTO | KALUME KAZUNGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Jubilee takes the seats of governor, senator, woman rep, MP and MCAs.
  • Mr Timamy joins a host of other incumbents in Lamu and Kenya who have so far been thrown out by newcomers.
  • Mr Twaha pledged to ensure Lamu benefits from national government projects.

Jubilee Party has taken all the key positions in Lamu County in the 2017 elections, a shock to many who thought the region was an opposition stronghold.

Jubilee has taken the seats of governor, senator, woman rep and MP as well as MCA positions especially in Lamu West Constituency.

On Friday, Mr Fahim Twaha, who previously served as Lamu West MP for 15 years, was officially declared the new governor-elect after he beat the incumbent Governor Issa Timamy of ANC after garnering 22,972 votes against Mr Timamy’s 22,484 votes in what was described as a very tight race.

Mr Timamy joins a host of other incumbents in Lamu and Kenya who have so far been thrown out by newcomers.

Mr Twaha was handed his election certificate by the Lamu County Elections Manager Mohamed Adan in a colourful ceremony held at the Lamu Fort county tallying centre.

SECOND ATTEMPT

He has been Mr Timamy’s longest rival and this was his second shot at the gubernatorial positions after he lost in 2013.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Twaha said his first priority within his first 100 days in office will be to “undo the harm done to Lamu by my predecessor”.

He claimed that Mr Timamy had largely divided the people of Lamu along tribal lines and that his main objective is to ensure Lamu is united once again just like before.

Mr Twaha pledged to ensure Lamu benefits from national government projects in order to ensure adequate development and creation of jobs in order to alleviate rampant poverty.

MORE INVESTORS

He said he will encourage the national government to bring in more investors and added that he will support any project that promises to change fortunes in the county.

“My objective is to have one Lamu which is free from tribalism and ethnicity. There’s so much tribalism which wasn’t there before. People no longer regard each other as brothers and sisters but as so and so from this (or that) tribe,” said Mr Twaha.

However, outgoing Governor Timamy has not come out either to accept the results or concede defeat.

SENATOR

Another of Jubilee’s big wins is the Senate seat which has been taken over by youthful Anuar Loitiptip of Jubilee who got 14,432 votes against his closest rival, Hassan Albeity of Wiper party who got 14,374 votes.

Mr Loitiptip defeated incumbent Senator Abu Chiaba during the Jubilee Party primaries in April.

The 31-year-old incoming senator holds a bachelor’s degree in tourism from Uganda’s Kampala University.

WOMAN REP

Jubilee has also won the women representative’s seat which has been taken by Ms Ruweida Mohamed Obbo who defeated incumbent Woman Rep Shakilla Abdalla of Wiper.

Ms Obbo garnered 23,146 votes against Shakilla’s 13,387 votes.

The 39-year-old Obbo is a certified pilot having graduated from the Kenya School of Flying.

UPLIFT WOMEN

She pledged to help uplift the women of Lamu by making available development funds from the national government and setting up self-help kitties.

“I want to empower the Lamu women in order to enable them stand by themselves. I want to ensure the girl child accesses education and also establish self-help kitties for mothers and the youth in Lamu.

“My predecessor depended too much on the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) when doing development in the county. As for me, my aim is to ensure that apart from NGAAF, I will go round looking for investors in order to ensure more development for all in our county,” said Ms Obbo.

At the same time, the Lamu East Constituency seat was won by incumbent MP Ali Athman Sharif who defected from the United Democratic Front (UDF) party to Jubilee.

Jubilee Party has also clinched a considerable number of ward seats in both Lamu West and Lamu East constituencies in the just-concluded elections.