Chama Cha Uzalendo leader and former Machakos gubernatorial candidate Nzioka Waita has conceded defeat after his arch rival Wavinya Ndeti of Wiper Party garnered an overwhelming commanding lead even as the tallying of votes is underway.
Waita ate a humble pie and honourably took a bow without staging a fight in one of the fiercest contested seats even as Machakos County IEBC returning officer Nelly Illongo is expected to declare the winner at Machakos Academy, the county’s tallying centre later today this evening.
“We are taking this opportunity to formally concede this election and to pass a message to the people of Machakos that we are grateful for the support they gave us. We are grateful they came out to vote in large numbers. To the team that will take over, we wish them all the best,” he said.
However, Waita alleged that the Machokos election was marred by irregularities without elaborating why he did not move to court to contest Wavinya’s expected win.
“A number of presiding officers had already taken sides and objections noted by our team was not taken into account. Our opponents stormed the polling centres in the middle of the night intimidating the people counting and none of these objections were taken into account.” Nzioka lamented.
Pundits described Waita as a political greenhorn having previously served in both government and the corporate sector.
He is the immediate former Chief of Staff at State House.
The Machokos governor seat had attracted four candidates.
Besides Waita and Ndeti, others are Johnson Muthama, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Chairman and Rose Mulwa who was running under the Empowerment and Liberation Party (ELP).