Richard Onyonka wins in Kitutu Chache South by-election

Ford Kenya’s Richard Onyonka has been re-elected as Kitutu Chache South legislator for the third time consecutively in three different parties.

Constituency Returning Officer Hilda Imbo handed Mr. Richard Onyonka his certificate on Tuesday night after he was declared the winner.

Onyonka won with 10,122 (45.86%)votes against his closest rival Jubilee’s Antony Kibagendi who came second with 5,074 votes (22.99%). The by-election which took place across all the 115 polling stations in the constituency had a voter turn out of 37.4%, with the constituency having  a total of 59,017 registered voters. Only 22,072 votes were valid and 168 were rejected votes.

The election was postponed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) a few days to the August 8 General Election after Jubilee Party’s candidate Leonard Namwamba died in a road accident.

Onyonka took after his father Zachary Onyonka who had been Kitutu Chache MP for 34 years until his demise in 1996. Richard Onyonka lost the immediate by-election after his father’s death but he later won in 2007 when he ran as a PDP candidate and in 2013 he was elected on an ODM ticket.

Other candidates who were in the just concluded race were; Andrew Mokaya, 2,191 votes (9.93%), Henry Morara, 201 votes (0.91%), James Kegoro, 100 votes (0.45%) and Justus Onsongo, 60 votes ( 0.27%).