Kisumu county governor Jack Ranguma has officially ditched the Orange Democratic Party to defend his seat as an independent candidate.
Ranguma will now face off with his area senator Prof Anyang Nyong’o who was been handed over the party certificate after controversially being declared winner in the party primaries.
Speaking in Kisumu, Ranguma said he had arrived at the decision after consulting widely with his supporters. Ranguma said, “I want to state that my name will be on the ballot because the will of the people of Kisumu County was not respected during the nominations. The governor however said that he would campaign for Nasa’s presidential candidate Raila Odinga.
“ I am still loyal to the party leader and will do anything possible to look for his votes but down here we must wrestle together,” he said. Elsewhere, the High Court has dismissed an appeal by two voters challenging the nomination Nyong’o as the Kisumu Governor ODM flag bearer.
Justice Luka Kimaru upheld the decision of Political Parties Dispute Tribunal that the two appellants; Hezron J Opiyo and Jared Okech did not exhaust the internal party disputes mechanism before going before the tribunal.
“The appeal is hereby dismissed as the appellants had no authority to move to the tribunal before exhausting the party dispute mechanism,” ruled the Judge. Justice Kimaru stated that the two Kisumu County voters did not adduce any evidence to prove their frustrations by the tribunal and could not therefore prove that they were not given an opportunity.
The two voters filed an appeal claiming that the tribunal was unfair in dismissing their petition for lack of jurisdiction.