Nasa beats Jubilee Party in battle for Coast seats

Mombasa Governor elect Hassan Ali Joho receives the IEBC certificate from the County Returning Officer Nancy Kariuki at Bandari College after he was declared the winner in the gubernatorial contest on August 12, 2017. LABAN WALLOGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Jubilee, however, made inroads in the region that overwhelmingly voted for ODM in the 2013 polls by winning the Kwale gubernatorial seat.
  • Incumbent Governor Salim Mvurya, who defected from ODM after a fallout with the party, beat Wiper candidate Chirau Mwakwere and ODM’s Issa Kipera to bag the seat.
  • Jubilee further scooped the Lamu gubernatorial seat through former MP Fahim Twaha.
  • ODM also bagged all the MP seats in Kilifi, locking out Jubilee despite frequent forays by President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto to the county.

The National Super Alliance (Nasa) won most of the seats at the Coast in the August 8 General Election, cementing its popularity in the region.

Jubilee, however, made inroads in the region that overwhelmingly voted for ODM in the 2013 polls by winning the Kwale gubernatorial seat.

Incumbent Governor Salim Mvurya, who defected from ODM after a fallout with the party, beat Wiper candidate Chirau Mwakwere and ODM’s Issa Kipera to bag the seat.

Jubilee further scooped the Lamu gubernatorial seat through former MP Fahim Twaha.

Incumbent Governor Issa Timamy, who was elected on a UDF ticket in 2013, vied for the seat on Amani National Congress ticket this time round and narrowly lost to his archrival, Mr Twaha.

GRANTON SAMBOJA

Wiper won the Taita Taveta governor’s seat through journalist-businessman Granton Samboja. Taita Taveta Governor John Mruttu, who vied as an independent after losing in the ODM primaries, came second.

In Tana River, ODM’s Godhana Dhado trounced Governor Hussein Dado. Mr Dado was elected on a Wiper ticket in 2013 but switched to Jubilee in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.

ODM’s coast political kingpins Hassan Joho (Mombasa governor) and Amason Kingi (Kilifi) gave their opponents a hard beating, winning with huge margins.

The duo, who are strong defenders of Nasa leader Raila Odinga and the Jubilee administration’s harshest critics, proved pundits wrong by the huge following they enjoyed.

Mr Joho usually describes himself as the Coast “Sultan,” with his supporters regarding him as the region’s spokesman.

Just like in 2013, Jubilee also lost all the top seats in Mombasa with a majority of the MPs, ward representatives and the senatorial seat going to ODM.

MP SEATS

ODM also bagged all the MP seats in Kilifi, locking out Jubilee despite frequent forays by President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto to the county.

Jubilee, however, bagged the Lunga Lunga parliamentary seat in Kwale County through incumbent MP Khatib Mwashetani. Mr Mwashetani was elected on a Ford-Kenya ticket in 2013 before shifting allegiance to Jubilee.

Coast long serving politician Ngozi Rai (Jubilee), however, lost the Kinango parliamentary seat to Mr Benjamin Tayari of ODM. 

ODM’s nominated MP Zuleikha Juma was declared Kwale Woman Representative after trouncing Jubilee’s Zainab Chidzuga.

Ms Chidzuga is among top ODM lieutenants who defected to Jubilee but lost in the Tuesday ballot.

Others are Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro who was vying for the gubernatorial seat on a Jubilee ticket, Kilifi South MP Mustafa Iddi, Taita Taveta Woman Rep Joyce Lay, who was vying for the senatorial seat, and senator Dan Mwazo who wanted to be governor.

NAOMI SHABAN

Jubilee’s Naomi Shaban, however, reclaimed her Taveta parliamentary seat by beating her opponent from Wiper with about 100 votes.

President Kenyatta’s party also took the Taita Taveta woman rep seat through Ms Lydia Mizighi.

Jubilee also bagged the Lamu woman representative seat through Ms Ruweida Mohamed who trounced Ms Shakila Abdalla who was defending her seat on a Wiper ticket. The President’s party also won the Lamu senatorial seat through 31-year-old Anuar Loitiptip.

 ODM took the coast senatorial seats through lawyer Mohamed Faki, Mr Jones Mwaruma (Taita Taveta), Mr Stewart Madzayo (Kilifi ), and Issa Juma Boy (Kwale). Mr Golicha Wario of Jubilee won the senatorial race in Tana River.

Tana River Woman Rep Halima Ware, who defected from Wiper to Jubilee, also lost to Ms Rehema Hassan of MCCP.

 Bura MP Ali Wario also retained the seat on a Jubilee ticket after garnering 10,459 votes. The Nasa and Jubilee coalitions have been fighting for the control of the 1.7 million votes in the region.

Mombasa leads the six coast counties with about 580,223 registered voters, followed by Kilifi 508,068, Kwale 281,041 and Tana River (118,327). Taita Taveta has 155,716 registered voters while Lamu has 69,776.

The region, which overwhelmingly voted for ODM in the 2013 polls, has been a battleground for Nasa and Jubilee. President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga and their running mates made frequent visits to the six coast counties to win locals’ support.

The Jubilee Party supremos were keen on dislodging their key critics in the region – Mr  Joho and Mr Kingi. Mr Suleiman Shahbal was fronted to dethrone Mr Joho while Mr Mung’aro had the task of removing Mr Kingi from power.