Changing scenarios in Nyandarua politics – Weekly Citizen

A new political wind is blowing Nyandarua, more so, in Kinangop constituency after the High Court dismissed an election petition against Zachary Kwenya who was elected on a Jubilee party ticket.

For now, MPs and MCAs elected on Jubilee party ticket are angling towards United Democratic Alliance side after William Ruto and his team toured the region for prayers recently.

In Kinangop, UDA supporters and the petitioner Amos Chege who was ordered to pay Sh2.5 million by the court after the dismissal of his petition, were anticipating a by-election and had even started early campaigns.

Being in power, they expected a ruling to be done in their favour and even Chege went around claiming that deputy president Rigathi Gachagua was to use the by-election to root out Jubilee remnants in the entire Mount Kenya region.

For now, Chege and his UDA supporters are confused which step to take with a section pushing him to go to the Court of Appeal. On the other side, the sitting MP Thuku want Chege to pay Sh2.5 million ordered by the court or have Chege auctioned to teach him a long lasting political lesson. Reports we have are that Chege’s lawyers are also demanding Sh3.5 million as legal fees and it is said he has been playing hide-and-seek games with the lawyers.

Amos Kimunya

Dismissing the petition, Nyahururu judge James Wakianga said Sh500,000 of the money is to be paid to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission that was the first respondent while the rest will be paid to Kwenya, who was the second respondent.

In the petition, Chege had accused Thuku of voter bribery marred with massive irregularities, swapping of results, voter suppression and voter manipulation that compromised the integrity for the electoral process.

During the hearing of the petition, Chege stunned the court when he claimed that Thuku won the election after using ‘bewitched’ money to bribe voters.

“Maybe, the money was bewitched because my voters would later claim that they did not know how they changed their mind from voting for me,” the petitioner told the court, noting that he was the most popular candidate vying on a popular political party.

According to the ruling, the court found that the IEBC conducted the polls in compliance with the constitution.

Zachary Kwenya Thuku

“What the petitioner had pointed out has been satisfactorily explained before this court by IEBC. I, therefore, find and hold that Zachary Kwenya Thuku was validly elected in the election conducted on August 9 2022, as MP for Kinangop constituency,” the judge stated in his verdict.

Thuku was re-elected for a second term in office on a Jubilee Party ticket having garnered 39,338 votes against the petitioner’s 34,842 votes.

During last year August 9 polls, Nyandarua county elected four MPs back to parliament, voting then majority leader Amos Kimunya and Jubilee secretary general Jeremiah Kioni out.

David Kiaraho (Olkalou), Michael Muchira (Ol Jororok) and Kwenya Thuku, (Kinangop) were reelected with women representative, Faith Gitau also surviving.

Olkalou Kiaraho (Jubilee) garnered 24,058 votes against his closest rival Samuel Kamau (UDA) who got 19,380. In Ndaragwa constituency, George Gachagua (UDA) humbled Kioni, bagging 30,180 votes against 7,727 that Kioni garnered.

Then East African legislative assembly member Wanjiku Muhia (UDA) won Kipipiri seat, getting 15,196 votes against Kimunya’s 7, 295 votes.

Muchira, who defended his Ol Jororok constituency seat on a UDA ticket retained it with 26,980 votes defeating Mungai Kiongera alias Express of Jubilee who got 11,683 votes. Nyandarua has five constituencies namely Kinagop, Kipipiri, Ol Kalou, Oljororok and Ndaragwa, all of which elected Jubilee MPs in 2017 but come last year, Jubilee and UDA shared spoils even in the county assembly.