How Sakaja, Sifuna, Passaris clinched top Nairobi seats
Politics
By
Josphat Thiong'o
| Aug 14, 2022
Johnson Sakaja, Edwin Sifuna and Esther Passaris are the newly elected Governor, Senator and Woman Representative of Nairobi County respectively.
Nairobi County has a total of 2, 415, 310 registered voters.
The trio have been declared winners of Tuesday's polls on Sunday morning by the Nairobi County Returning Officer Albert Gogo.
This came after three days of tallying votes from all the constituencies in the capital, a process that was occasioned by delays in various constituencies.
At the time of declaring the winners of the county's top seats, some polling stations in Starehe Constituency had not submitted their documents to the county returning officer.
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However, Mr Gogo argued that declaring the winners without including the votes would not change the winning candidates.
"In the senate race, the highest is over 700, 000 votes and the second one second got slightly above 500, 000 votes. If we add the 4, 000 registered voters from the areas, it is impossible for the second candidate to catch up. Therefore, declaring the winner would not disenfranchise any candidate," Gogo said shortly before announcing the results.
In the Governor race, Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja has floored Jubilee candidate Polycarp Igathe after getting 699, 393 votes.
Nonetheless, Sakaja was not present during the announcement of results at Kasarani. He made his way to the venue to collect his certificate an hour later.
In his acceptance speech, he lauded his main rival in the elections, for maintaining integrity as he pledged to improve the living standards of Nairobi.
"We will make this city what it deserves to be," he said
Igathe managed to secure only 573, 516 votes.
Others in the race are Harman Singh Grewal (Safina Party) 10, 521 votes, Kariuki Agnes Kagure (Independent) 10, 086, Kiio Cleophas Mutua (Ford Kenya) 6, 485, Kodhe Denis Arua Ochieng (LDP) 5, 557, Mwadime Nancy Wambui (Usawa Kwa Wote ) 5, 531, and Thairu Esther Waringa (independent) 5, 944.
In the senate race, ODM candidate Edwin Sifuna won the Nairobi Senate race after garnering 716, 876 votes against UDA's Margaret Wanjiru who managed to get 524, 091 votes
The race had attracted 13 candidates who had shown interest in succeeding Johnson Sakaja, who went for the governor's seat.
Other candidates in the race only managed to get less than 15, 000 votes.
In his acceptance speech, Sifuna said he was ready to work for the better of Nairobi County.
In the Woman Representative race, the incumbent, Esther Passaris successfully defended her seat after garnering 698, 929 votes against her closest competitor of the UDA party Millicent Omanga.
She only managed to get 586, 246 votes.
Other candidates in the race were Monica Gitau who got 17, 811 votes, Delvine Moraa 7, 832, Mary Musyoki 5, 383 and Brenda Ntwiga 718.
In her emotional acceptance speech amid cheers from supporters at Kasarani, Passaris dedicated the win to her deceased father, who passed away in early this year.
"I want to dedicate this win to my father. Daddy, I promise to do everything you taught me and serve the people of Nairobi better each day," she said in a shaky voice as she fought back tears.