Political newbie, Wainaina wa Jungle is the next Thika Town MP

Little-known politician Patrick Wainaina decided to swim against the party wave, and emerged the winner.

Wainaina, who is popularly known as Wainaina wa Jungle, is the next Thika Town MP and he surprised many when he defeated Alice Ng'ang'a of Jubilee.

He garnered 58,286 votes or 52.57 per cent of votes cast, while Ms Ng'ang'a got 52,115 (47 per cent). George Murito was third with 477 votes, representing 0.43 per cent of the votes cast.

On Thursday, Thika Town returning officer Geoffrey Gitobu declared Wainaina, a businessman, who ran as an independent, the winner.

All odds were stacked against Wainaina considering that Thika Town and the larger Kiambu County, is a Jubilee zone and his decision to run against a party candidate reduced his chances of ever making to the August house.

Wainaina will be the only independent MP in President Uhuru Kenyatta's home county.

Wainaina resigned from Jubilee on April 25 after the party nominations that declared Ms Ng'ang'a the winner. He disputed the outcome, terming it biased and unfair.

Ms Ng'ang'a was declared the winner with 15,880 votes against Wainaina's 14,731 votes.

Wainaina campaigned among various interest groups, among them youth, women, the business community, religious organisations and boda boda operators, to sell his manifesto.

He also visited markets, churches, and bus parks. Wainaina also attended social gatherings to popularise himself.

Many thought Ms Ng'ang'a, with the ticket of the dominant party in the county would retain the seat without a fight since party stalwarts in favour of the six-piece voting strategy campaigned for her on several occasions.

Her chances were probably being increased by the fact that she was a sworn opponent of Kiambu Governor William Kabogo’s policies.

Kabogo was also defeated in the party primaries and ran as an independent candidate, and lost the gubernatorial race.

Odd that the bitter rivals are now both in the political cold.