NAIROBI, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenyans returned to the polls on Wednesday to
elect five members of parliament in what has been dubbed crucial by-elections.
The elections will allow the Grand Coalition partners ¨C Orange Democratic
Movement (ODM) and Party of National Unity (PNU) -- to battle control over
parliament and came a day after the death of ODM legislators in a plane crash
late Tuesday.
Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones and Home Affairs Assistant Minister Lorna
Laboso - all from opposition ODM - were killed in the plane crash in northwest
Kenya as they headed to coordinate one of the by-elections in Rift Valley.
The by-elections will also be held in 52 civic awards whose results had
been challenged. The deadline for all political campaigns expired on Monday. A
dispute over Kenya's presidential election results in December sparked
countrywide chaos which left at least 1,000 dead while 350,000 others were
displaced,
Two other ODM elected lawmakers in Embakasi and Ainamoi, Mellitus Were and
David Too, were shot dead at the height of the political violence respectively.
Other seats to be filled include those of Umuhaya which fell vacant after
the election of Kenneth Marende as Speaker of the National Assembly and other
two constituencies - Kilgoris where results were not announced due to violence
and Wajir North where the candidates tied on the votes.
The Wednesday's by-elections have already taken tribal connotation, with
some tribes rejecting nominated candidates in areas they considered their
ancestral land.
For instance, the nomination of ODM's Jonathan Ng¨¦no, who hailed from the
Kipsigis community, had forced the Maasais to rally behind the PNU sponsored
candidate, Gideon Konchella.
