UDA Earns Plaudits For Giving Young Aspirants Fair Chance

This week’s UDA nominations saw the emergence of a new crop of leadership, especially from the youth bracket that disappointed veteran politicians as a telling of the new face of voters who will constitute the youth this time.

Big names lost in various parts of the country as voters came out to punish incumbency and reward insurgent candidates.

Even for diehard supporters of Deputy President William Ruto, the elections proved to be a mixed bag as a majority of the most vocal members of his team were rejected by voters.

The fact that many bigwigs lost, and all loopholes of interference were sealed by UDA validated DP Ruto’s promise of ensuring every single aspirant is granted a fair chance at the nominations.

A cursory look at the results has been viewed by many as a testimony of his pledge to bring governance closer to the people by keeping it accessible and transparent.

From the numbers aired, it was clear as day that women and youth candidates were the biggest winners, especially in Rift Valley, where they beat experienced and moneyed faces to clinch the tickets.

Several big names, including DP Ruto’s personal friend, Mr Charles Keter, the former Cabinet Secretary for Energy were defeated.

The surprises did not end there.

In Bomet County, Linet Chepkorir, 24, defeated the incumbent Joyce Korir to bag the UDA ticket for the Woman rep position.

Video clips of Ms Korir sobbing at the realisation of the unexpected flooded the social media along with the story of the less fancied Chepkorir, popularly known as “Toto”.

In Nandi, the new crop of young leaders includes Governor Stephen Sang, Samson Cherargei, Cynthia Muge, and Josses Lelmengit, among others.

Sang, who is currently the governor for Nandi county, was nominated to vie for the gubernatorial seat, while Cherargei was nominated to vie for the senatorial seat.

On the other hand, 29-year-old Muge won the Woman Rep UDA ticket.

Lelmengit clinched Emgwen’s Member of Parliament ticket. The 28-year-old, a civil engineer by profession, got 4,792 votes beating close rival and outgoing Nandi Woman Rep Tecla Tum who garnered 4,200 votes.

He once served as Senator Samson Cherargei’s Personal Assistant (PA).

In other parties, like Raila Odinga’s ODM, direct tickets to his bigwigs including Siaya Senator James Orengo (Governor), Dr Oburu Oginga (Senator, Siaya), Anyang’ Nyong’o (Governor, Kisumu), Gladys Wanga (Governor, Homa Bay), Ochilo Ayacko (Governor, Migori) attracted huge outcry from some aspirants who cited betrayal.

In Siaya, former police spokesperson Charles Owino decamped to United Democratic Movement (UDM) to team up with ex Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo to run for Siaya Governor seat after he was pushed to step down for Mr Orengo while Lawyer George Mugoye who was expecting to battle it out with Mr Orengo got a rude shock after he was awarded direct ticket.

Architect Julius Okinda and businessman Tony Yogo were also disappointed after Dr Oginga, Mr Odinga’s elder brother bagged a direct ticket to run for the Siaya Senate seat, with Mr Yogo announcing yesterday he will vie on an independent ticket.

Former Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Ken Obura who was seeking to dethrone Prof Nyong’o also got a rude awakening on the realisation that the incumbent had benefited from direct ticket.

In this regard, Deputy President William Ruto appears to have beaten Azimio coalition party leader Raila Odinga in the party primaries battle by giving maximum tickets to youthful aspirants.