Rivals reject Nyagarama's win in ODM governor primaries

Governor John Nyagarama. (Photo: Collins Oduor, Standard)

Confusion reigned in Nyamira for the second day after the controversial ODM gubernatorial nominations of Tuesday.

Governor John Nyagarama was declared the winner but his two opponents – outgoing West Mugirango MP James Gesami and John Kumenda – rejected the results and warned of a massive backlash if their complaints are not addressed.

Nyagarama garnered 17,487 votes, Gesami got 12,126 votes, while Kumenda got 939 votes.

Gesami and Kumenda described the primaries as a sham, saying many of their supporters did not vote because of irregularities, including lack of a voter register. They gave ODM 48 hours to nullify the nominations or face legal action.

Many polling stations in their strongholds, they claimed, did not open at all. They are also questioning why voting in some polling stations were open past 11pm on Tuesday.

There was chaos across the county after Nyagarama and his two rivals disagreed over which register was to be used. While Nyagarama insisted that only the ODM register was to be used, Gesami and Kumenda said the IEBC register should be used for back-up. The two later boycotted the exercise.

Around 80,000 registered party members were expected to vote but only 31,000 people participated in the polls.