Former State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita concedes as Wavinya Ndeti takes lead

Machakos governor candidate Nzioka Waita conceded defeat during a press conference. [John Muia, Standard]

Former State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita has conceded defeat in the Machakos gubernatorial race.

His main rival for the Machakos governor seat is former Transport and Infrastructure Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Wavinya Ndeti, running on a Wiper Party ticket.

Addressing journalists on Friday, August 12, Waita congratulated Ndeti and wished her team the best.

By the time Waita conceded defeat, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had not yet announced the winner of the Machakos gubernatorial race.

"We are taking this opportunity to formally concede this election and to pass a message to the people of Machakos [County] that we are grateful for the support they gave us.

Election irregularities claims

"We are grateful they came out to vote in large numbers. To the team that will take over, we wish them all the best," he said.

Waita, however, alleged that the Machokos election was marred by irregularities.

"A number of presiding officers had already taken sides and objections noted by our team was not taken into account.

"Our opponents stormed the polling centres in the middle of the night intimidating the people counting and non of these objections were taken into account," Nzioka lamented.

On February 9, Waita officially resigned as Chief of Staff to focus on his Machakos Governor quest. He and his running mate, Florence Mwangangi, had promised to revive the county's fortunes by fighting poverty and corruption. The former public servant now says that his ticket ideas carried the day but their opponent's tactics had the way.

The Machokos governor seat had four candidates. Apart from Waita and Ndeti, the other two are Johnson Muthama, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Chairman and Rose Mulwa who was running under the Empowerment and Liberation Party (ELP).