IEBC declares no by-elections following deaths of Governor Gachagua and Senator Juma
The Nyeri Governor passed away on Friday morning while undergoing cancer treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, United Kingdom.
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The Nyeri Governor passed away on Friday morning while undergoing cancer treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, United Kingdom.
Senator Juma died on February 12 at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi following a short illness.
In the case of the Nyeri Gubernatorial seat, residents will not required to go to the polls following the death of Gachagua, because, under the Constitution, Deputy Governor Samuel Wamathai assumes the top office.
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“If a vacancy occurs in the office of county governor, the deputy county governor shall assume office as county governor for the remainder of the term of the county governor,” reads Article 182 (2) of the Constitution.
Mr Wamathai will now automatically serve the remainder of Mr Gachagua’s term.
Kwale case
However, the case of the Kwale senatorial is not as straight forward.
Juma’s death fell close to the August elections and the IEBC Electoral Operations Manager Mwaura Kamwati said by-elections are a "lengthy process".
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IEBC will take 90 days to conduct the by-election and the earliest Kwale can get a senator is the end of May leaving only two months before the August elections.
Parliament will be dissolved in mid-June hence two elections in a span of two months will greatly bear a huge financial cost to the Kenyan taxpayer.
The IEBC stand will throw the political process in Kwale into disarray as campaigns for a possible by-election had already kicked off with various politicians already positioning themselves to take over Juma’s mantle.
A group of NASA leaders, imams and scholars had already fronted Nicholas Zani; the brother of ODM acting secretary general Agnes Zani.
However, the family of the late senator has picked his younger brother Issah Juma to succeed him.
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