Governor Alfred Mutua after being sworn in on Thursday. (Photo/facebook.com/Alfred Mutua)
Former Kathiani MP Wavinya Ndeti who was floored during the Machakos gubernatorial contest will challenge Governor Alfred Mutua’s re-election in court.
Mutua, she says, lost the election but was declared the winner by the IEBC.
“Mutua has continued to cling to power through the help of cartels who have held the country hostage and denied Kenyan people their rights,” she said on Thursday.
“For the second election in a row the voice of the people has been ignored, the candidate who lost the election has been declared governor. I will be moving to court to challenge the declaration of Mutua by IEBC as governor. The people of Machakos will not let such impunity continue any longer. We have the right and indeed the high responsibility to defend the Constitution and the will of the people of Machakos.”
Wavinya made the remarks shortly before Mutua was sworn in by Lady Justice Lilian Mutende to serve for another five-year term.
“I urge the people of Machakos to rise to the occasion and refuse to sit and watch our county being run from the studios and Facebook posts,” she said.
“After in-depth research and consultations, we've established that the elections in Machakos were marred by colossal irregularities and rigging in favour of my opponent. No wonder he shamelessly rushed the process of swearing in to cover his shame.”
Mutua won the election after garnering 238,405 votes against Wavinya’s 199,257.
Wavinya was fronted for the county’s top seat by Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper party to challenge Mutua who has had a frosty relationship with Kalonzo since 2013.
Mutua says he genuinely won the election because of his good development record adding that the gubernatorial contest was not an easy one.
“I have to admit that this was not an easy contest. It was a competition between real development liberation and the dark forces of sycophancy and politics of poverty that have made Africa the poorest continent and the laughing stock of the rest of the world,” he said in his address after being sworn in.