Chaos and heavy protests yesterday engulfed Homa Bay town following the announcement of incumbent governor Cyprian Awiti as the winner in the county ODM party primaries.
Supporters of Awiti’s arch rival Oyugi Magwanga barricaded Homa Bay-Rongo road in protest of the results.
Tension remained high in the lakeside town as gunshots rented the air leaving business and transport activities paralyzed for the better part of the day.
The protestors were demanding the cancellation of the entire nomination process.
“We want ODM National Elections Board to render the cooked nominations results invalid with immediate effect,” said protester Samuel Onyango.
The supporters said they voted for Magwanga, questioning the source of the results.
They vowed to continue with the demonstrations until either the nomination results are nullified or Magwanga is handed the party ticket.
The protesters also threatened to teach ODM a lesson in the August General election if the party insists in giving Awiti the ticket.
“We know why we voted for Magwanga. He has the capacity to development this county hence ‘no Magwanga, no Raila, Uhuru Tena’,” they shouted.
The protestors demonstrated along the streets of Homa bay town also engaged the police in a cat and mouse play.
They accused the police of protecting Awiti after the results was released.
In the results, the county returning officer Erustus Otieno and elections board chairman Tom Cheriga declared Awiti to have won the nominations exercise after garnering 46, 346 votes against Magwanga with 14, 661 votes.
Other results showed that aspirant Enosh Bolo got 2,172 votes, Sammy Wakiaga 2087 votes while Cosmas Kanyadudi garnered only 24 votes.
The officials also released their senatorial results declaring incumbent senator Moses Kajwang’ as ODM nominee with1948 votes against his only closest challenger Fred Rabongo who had 754 votes.
