Kwale Wiper governor candidate Chirau Mwakwere at a past event. [Photo/ the-star.co.ke]
Kwale Wiper gubernatorial aspirant Chirau Mwakwere has rejected the provisional results putting his challenger Governor Salim Mvurya of Jubilee Party ahead citing rigging claims.
Mwakere, a former diplomat, claimed the results were rigged in favour of Mvurya.On Wednesday, Mwakwere engaged IEBC officials led by the South Coast coordinator Amina Soud, sparking a standoff between security agents, his supporters and those of Mvurya, the Nation has reported.As at 7.45am, results posted on the IEBC portal showed Mvurya was leading the race with 111, 101 votes against Mwakwere’s 27,167 votes.However, according to political analysts, the failure by NASA affiliate parties - Wiper and ODM - to agree on one aspirant to vie against Mvurya could have worked in the latter’s favour.Aside from Mwakwere (Wiper), ODM had Issah Kiperah also eyeing the top county seat.The analysts said had NASA fielded one candidate, Mvurya would not have had an easy time retaining his seat.There are also those of the view that Mwakwere and Kiperah come from the same area and thus had to share the spoils, thereby giving Mvurya the opportunity to rally all his Duruma community behind him.The Governor also got a boost after the government gave citizenship to the Makonde community who voted for the first time in the history of Kenya’s elections.On his part, Sammy Ruwa who ran as an independent candidate congratulated Mvurya for the win.