Ruto Causes Huge Upset In Martha Karua's Backyard
UDA candidates bagged the available parliamentary seats in Kirinyaga Central, Gichugu, Ndia and Mwea constituencies.
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Deputy President William Ruto has put another dent in Raila Odinga and the Azimio la Umoja coalition after his United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party swept clean all the parliamentary seats in Kirinyaga County.
The party fried the Azimio coalition in the region which is the backyard of Azimio running mate, Martha Karua. This is the humiliation that the coalition was not expecting since it was tasked with wooing voters in a county of 610,411 people.
UDA candidates bagged the available parliamentary seats in Kirinyaga Central, Gichugu, Ndia and Mwea constituencies.
Martha Karua casting her vote on August 9, 2022. /TWITTER
Mwea had Mary Maingi who beat incumbent Kabinga Wathayu of Jubilee, another newcomer among those across the country to have caused upsets.
She garnered 50,667 votes, becoming the MP of the largest Constituency in the region while Wathayu followed with 31,735 votes.
Gichimu Githinji of UDA retained his seat in the Gichugu Constituency with 33,889 votes. This is the same constituency which has Mugumo Primary School, where Karua cast her vote.
His closest rival, Peterson Njomo who was running as an independent, garnered 15,069 votes.
Another candidate to have retained his seat is George Kariuki, who was re-elected in the Ndia Constituency on a UDA ticket.
In Kirinyaga Central, former MP Gachoki Gitari made a comeback on the UDA ticket after toppling the incumbent Munene Wambugu of Jubilee.
This is the second time Karua lost to Ruto after she was beaten in her polling station. Raila gained 311 votes (25.2 per cent) but was not enough to beat Ruto's 911 votes (74 per cent) in terms of the ballots cast at Mugumo Primary School.
In two short comments, she noted that it was the people who made their decision and that the race was far from over.
"It’s not done till it’s done.
"Will always go with my heart!" read the short remarks on Twitter.
Raila's deputy president was one of the duo of major personalities who failed to deliver the crucial Mt Kenya votes to the former Prime Minister.
Karua was pivotal in countering the heatwave generated by the Kenya Kwanza coalition in the Mt Kenya region, one of the most critical areas needed for any presidential candidate to emerge victorious.
President Uhuru Kenyatta also failed to deliver the Mt Kenya votes, after his polling station recorded the following results: Ruto garnered 983 (67.3 per cent) against Raila's 479 (32.8) per cent of the total valid votes cast (1,460).
Rigathi Gachagua casting his vote on August 9, 2022. /RIGATHI GACHAGUA
