Duale beats Wiper’s Farah Maalim to retain Garissa seat

Thursday August 10, 2017

National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale receives his certificate on August 9, 2017 after he was declared the winner in the Garissa Township parliamentary contest. He defeated Wiper’s Farah Maalim. PHOTO | ABDIMALIK HAJIR | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

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National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale has successfully defended his Garissa Township parliamentary seat against Wiper’s Farah Maalim who sought to unseat him.

Constituency Returning Officer Boru Duba declared Mr Duale the winner after he garnered 22,587 votes against his main political opponent Farah Maalim who got 14,897 votes.

Others in the race were Aden Mohamed Abdullahi (135 votes) and Abdi Yare Mohamed (454 votes).

While addressing supporters and journalist at the constituency tallying hall, Mr Duale thanked voters whom he said have shown confidence in his leadership for giving him a third term in row.

COMMENDS IEBC

At the same time, he commended IEBC for conducting what he termed as free and fair elections.

He particularly appreciated the role played by women who do business at the famous suk mukdi (dark market) saying despite coming from different backgrounds, the give him full support.

“I want to thank my party Jubilee and…all members of the party across the country because I play very critical role when we go to the field,” said Mr Duale.

DUJIS MP

Mr Duale was first elected to Parliament to represent Dujis Constituency in 2007 on an ODM ticket before ditching the party and joining Deputy President William Ruto’s URP.

He was re-elected on a URP ticket to represent Garissa Township.

The vocal Jubilee MP said he was pleased that his presidential candidates is ahead of his rival Raila Odinga of ODM in the preliminary results released by IEBC adding that all indications are that Kenyans have retained the tyranny of numbers in Parliament.

Mr Duale, who for the first time paraded his family to the public, said he was pleased that some of his followers travelled from far to give him support in order to ensure he retained his parliamentary seat.