By Elections-ODM Sweeps

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has prevailed over the by-elections in Bomachoge and Shinyalu constituencies with a convincing win in both.

ODM’s Justus Kizito had a sound victory in Shinyalu after securing 14,452 votes, way ahead of his closest rival Daniel Khamasi of KADDU, who got 5,080 votes.

PNU's Patrick Chungani was third with 3,304 votes.

There was jubilation at the Lihanda Girls High School after the returning officer declared Mr Kizito the winner.

The vote and tally was done peacefully despite a low voter turn-out.

There was a bit more trouble in Bomachoge, where Simon Ogari of ODM triumphed narrowly over former MP Joel Onyancha of PNU.

Mr Ogari got 14,788 votes while Mr Onyancha followed closely with 14,099 votes.

Albert Nyaundi of Ford People was a distant third with 2,731 votes.

Mr Onyancha and his agents had refused to accept the results.

“They maintain that Mr Onyancha is the actual winner of the by-elections here. But the returning officer Thomas Okila says whoever is not satisfied with the results can pursue other avenues to contest them.”

There were widespread reports of voter bribery and vote buying in both mini-polls but the voting was peaceful and organised overall.

Though polling stations opened on time at 6am, voters began trickling in at 6.15am in Shinyalu, and at about 7am in Bomachoge.

These were the maiden elections overseen by the recently formed Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), and were conducted using transparent ballot boxes.

Each ballot box had four seals, unlike in the past when each box had two.