Alice Wahome's Kandara candidate trounced in UDA party primaries

Chege Njuguna (middle) receiving UDA nomination certificate. [Boniface Gikandi, Standard]

Businessman Chege Njuguna has won the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party primaries in Kandara Constituency, beating Water CS Alice Wahome's candidate of choice.

Njuguna, who had run in the August 9 polls, garnered 7,826 votes followed by a youthful businessman Titus Njau who got 5,335 votes.

Wahome, the former area MP, had thrown her weight behind Stephen Mwaura who came third with 4,414 votes.

The immediate former Murang'a Deputy Governor Maina Kamau got 2,191 votes.

While making his victory speech at Kagundu ini Polytechnic Njuguna thanked Kandara residents for having trust in him.

"Am grateful that the voters supported my bid to replace Wahome in the Kandara constituency leadership. We have the next hurdle and require the same support to face the by-election slated for January," Njuguna said.

Kandara MP seat was declared vacant after the former lawmaker, Wahome, was appointed to the cabinet by President William Ruto.

The nomination exercise which attracted 14 aspirants, registered a low turnout as only 25,683 voters took part in the exercise.

Kandara Constituency has 93 polling centres and a total of 105,148 registered voters.

The contest was between the two aspirants who both participated in the last general election, Chege of Chama Cha Kazi and Injinia, an independent candidate where Wahome was declared the winner.

Other candidates in the race were Andrew Kahenya 177 votes, Kelvin Kimani 265 votes, Patrick Kibe 103 votes, Raphael Macharia 231 votes, Ngacha Kinuthia 1,154 votes, Injini Patrick Macharia 1,001 votes.