Hiiraan Online
Thursday May 4, 2017
Nairobi (HOL) - Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan has won the Jubilee Party primary after his political rival Simon Mbugua conceded defeat.
The controversial poll garnered national headlines in Kenya after Mbugua initially was declared the winner. Mr. Hassan petitioned the result
Speaking from the Jubilee Party headquarters in Nairobi, Mbugua pledged to support Yusuf Hassan in the August elections.
“After consultations, I am now persuaded that the interests of the country are bigger than those of individuals”.
Yusuf Hassan told NTV Kenya that he overwhelmingly won the nomination bid with a vote of 10,123 to 6,273, winning in 11 of 16 polling stations. He accused a tallying officer of reporting false figures in a bid to steal the vote.
Kamukunji is one of 17 electoral constituencies in Nairobi county and includes the Eastleigh suburb, an area affectionately dubbed “Little Mogadishu” with its high concentration of Somalis.
Political parties in Kenya have been holding primary elections to choose the candidate that will represent them in the August 2017 General Elections.
The exercise has been fraught with accusations of vote rigging and intimidation has seen. At least 2 people killed throughout the country after rival political groups clashed, a stark reminder of the violence that followed the 2017 elections that killed 1000 and displaced over half a million Kenyans.