Vihiga governor Dr. Wilber Ottichilo has retained his seat after garnering 76,041votes beating four other contestants.
Dr. Ottichilo, vying on the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party ticket, beat his closest challenger Moses Akaranga of Progressive Party of Kenya (PPK) who obtained 37,049, by a range of 38,992 votes.
The results were released by the County Returning Officer (CRO) Peter Tiyo at the Chavakali high school multi-purpose hall, which is the county tallying centre.
The governor-elect banked on the impressive track record while in office which gave him an edge over the opponents.
Vihiga is the home county to the Kenya Kwanza (KK) coalition co-principal and Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi whose candidate Alfred Agoi was a distant fourth with 21, 071 votes after George Khaniri of United Democratic Party (UDP) who has so far garnered 26, 918 votes.
Agoi is the immediate former Member of Parliament (MP) for Sabatia constituency and Mudavadi’s close confidant while Khaniri is two-time immediate former senator of the area.
Francis Ominde, the former County Secretary, was the tail-end of the county Chief Executive Officer (CEO) race with 2,338 votes.
Meanwhile, the incumbent Charles Gimose has retained the Hamisi constituency seat on the ANC ticket after garnering 22, 621 votes against his closest challenger ODM’s Castro Lubanga who got 8,241 votes.
Ernest Kagesi has also successfully defended his Vihiga constituency seat on the ANC ticket with 13,890 votes, followed by Ken Omusedi of ODM with 10,551 while UDA’s Yusuf Chanzu came third with 4223 votes.
By Sammy Mwibanda
