Supporters of different political parties within Kaptega and Kapkoi wards of Kwanza constituency have maintained peace and maturity as they voted for their respective party candidates to vie for the two civic seats in the by-election that is one month away.

The latest parties to conduct their nominations exercise were New Ford Kenya and Ford Kenya that held their nominations concurrently in the same polling stations but with no ugly incidents reported.

The two parties used secret voting whereby a voter was supposed to produce the national identity card, the voters’ card indicating the polling station he or she wants to vote from and finally the party membership card.

New Ford Kenya had Simiyu Mabale and George Masika clinch the tickets for Kapkoi and Kaptega respectively after beating their opponents convincingly in the nomination voting exercise.

According to the returning officer David Tiaba Wekesa, Masika had garnered himself 610 votes against Evans Waswa and John Iyadi who got 335 and 127 respectively as they battled to win the party’s ticket for Kaptega.

In Kapkoi Simiyu Mabale emerged winner with 486 votes against the 209 attained by Christopher Makokha a former Nzoia county council chairman.

Ford Kenya on whose tickets the deceased councilors Samson Bunyasi who was also chairman of Nzoia County Council and Kevin Simiyu of Kapkoi had been elected to the council have had their candidates who are going to defend the party seats known.

The nominations returning officer in the two wards appointed by party headquarters Ken Wafula confirmed that Emmanuel Waswa emerged winner of Kapkoi ward Ford Kenya ticket after getting 629 votes.

Waswa’s opponents Fred Mambo, Chadwick Kulundu and Nyongesa Metotio got 191,122 and 37 votes respectively.

Other parties that have completed nominating their candidates for the September 17 by-election include URP, ODM and UDF.

William Kirwa Sang clinched the URP ticket to contest in the Kaptega ward polls while the winner of the Kapkoi ticket is yet to be known after the initial winner was later said not to be in possession of a voter’s card.

As we went to press the names of candidates for ODM and UDF in the two wards had not been known as the people concerned could not be reached immediately.

The prospective winners of the by-election in the two civic units cannot be predicted at the moment as the region has diverse following for different political parties including New Ford Kenya, Ford Kenya, URP and UDF which have portions of the votes.

However New Ford Kenya, URP and Ford Kenya might pose a tight contest against each other because of the people from Luhya and Kalenjin communities who are affiliated to the parties.

Kwanza Ford Kenya branch chairman Joseph Waningilo (pictured) told journalists in Kitale that the party was flexing its muscles to retain the two seats that were left vacant by councilors from the party.