Celebration rent the air at Takaye primary school in Ganda Ward on Friday morning when the by-election results were announced.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Returning officer Jumaa Musa announced ODM candidate Reuben Katana the winner with 4,177 followed by an Independent candidate Omar Abdulrahman with 2,331 while Jubilee candidate Joseph Kiponda came a distant third garnering 599 and KADU Asili candidate David Mitsanze got 362.
When he was awarded the certificate, Katana thanked ODM supporters for standing with him and urged his competitors to join him in delivering for the people of Ganda ward. He also thanked the security team led by the Kilifi County Comissioner Magu Mutindika for ensuring that the process went on smoothly.
The voter turnout was 43 per cent of the total number of voters in the ward translating into 7,469 votes against the expected 16, 625 registered voters in the twelve polling centres across the ward.
“It was a good fight and I thank all my supporters for proving that I deserve to lead them,” he said.
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The voting started on Thursday morning and the low turnout can be attributed to the heavy rains that pounded the area for the better part of the day.
Civil society groups called on the security agencies to speed up investigation into an incident where a man was killed when Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa stormed the home of Reuben Katana while he was meeting his party agents.
Husuf Lule of Huria, a human rights group said the exercise was peaceful with no reported incident to the satisfaction of election observers.
“There were no incidence of violence or any violation of electoral rules and that points to a much sober electorates,” he said.
