Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru has retained her seat after trouncing her close competitor Purity Wangui and six other contestants in the race for the county leadership.
Waiguru who defected to United Democratic Alliance (UDA) a few months to the general election garnered 113,088 votes while Purity Wangui who came in second as an Independent candidate polled 10,677 votes.
Wangui, the outgoing Kirinyaga woman representative, quit UDA after Waiguru crossed over from Jubilee to Ruto’s party over what she termed as unfair treatment within the party.
Others include Peter Njuguna of Safina, who got 10,166 votes. Silvanus Ndau, KADU Asili, 532 votes, Mureithi Kagai NARC Kenya, 1751 votes, Joseph Ndathi of The Service Party polled 3837 votes, while Peter Ireri (ANC) garnered 2132 votes.
Kirinyaga County Returning Officer Jane Gitonga handed over the certificate to Ann Waiguru who lauded all the stakeholders in the election process and the security teams.
Waiguru thanked the people of Kirinyaga for showing confidence in her and giving another five years to serve them. She pledged to continue transforming the lives of Kirinyaga residents.
“We have overcome different challenges and the supporters have worked hard to reach where we are,” Waiguru said. “We hope to make Kirinyaga proud by offering them the service they deserve,” she added.
In other results, James Kamau Murango of UDA, also the immediate Majority Leader in Kirinyaga County Assembly, is the senator-elect after garnering a total of 196,151 votes to beat Daniel Karaba of Jubilee who polled 26,430 votes.
“I pledge my commitment to represent my people of Kirinyaga with utmost diligence and transparency. I call upon all leaders to join hands with me to make Kirinyaga great,” Murango said.
In the Woman Representative race, youthful Njeri Maina of UDA beat seven other candidates to clinch the seat. Njeri garnered 175,001 votes while Rose Karani of Jubilee came in a distant second place with 49, 892 votes.
By Mutai Kipngetich
