William Kabogo congratulates Ferdinand Waititu

Kiambu Governor William Kabogo on Wednesday conceded defeat to his main challenger Ferdinand Waititu in the Kiambu gubernatorial race.

This was after provisional results transmitted by IEBC indicated that Kabogo was trailing Waititu by more than 55 per cent of votes counted so far.

**(Photo courtesy of IEBC public provisional tallying portal)**

In a statement to the press, Kabogo urged his campaigners to join him in congratulating Governor-Elect Ferdinand Waititu and offer him their good will and support.

“It is my sincere hope that we shall find a way to bridge our differences and heal the divisions of the campaign through which we have just passed. It was arguably one of the heated gubernatorial races this season and a lot of emphasis was put on personalities,” Kabogo said.

He added that he wishes the new team well in their endeavours as they shift their focus on working together with the people of Kiambu to make it the best place to grow, live and work.

Other candidates in the race were James Ng’ang’a Njuguna and Gakuru Karanja who had garnered less than one percent of the total votes by the time Kabogo conceded defeat in the afternoon.

Kabogo decided to run as an independent cadidate after he lost to Waititu in the Jubilee Party primaries in April 2017.

The Governor-Elect, who is known as Baba Yao, has been the Kabete MP. He won the seat in a by-election in 2015 after the death of George Muchai, who was shot on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi.

Waititu and Kabogo have been embroiled in a court battle over the former's academic papers.

The outgoing governor, in an attempt to bar Waititu from contesting against him in the August 8 General Election, challenged his integrity and academic qualifications, and implied that he (Waititu) never attended Panjab University in Chandigarh, India, as his papers show.

In December 2016, Waititu won the suit after a court ruled it lacked jurisdiction over the dispute.

In June this year, the High Court has ordered Kabogo to pay Waititu Sh5.3 million over the suit.

Waititu must be having the last laugh now that he is set to be the governor of one of the "high value" counties in Kenya, having trounced his bitter rival both in a court of law and in the court of public opinion, more than once in both instances.