Kevin Kioko, a former musician who is now running for office under the alias Bahati, will never forget what his sizable internet following did to him during the just finished general election for the Mathare parliamentary seat.
Despite having 222,000 Twitter followers, 796,000 Facebook likes, and 3.2 million Instagram followers, Bahati nevertheless fared poorly since his online support did not translate to actual votes.
The IEBC results show that Bahati finished last in the Mathare parliamentary election.
After receiving 28,098 votes, ODM candidate Anthony Oluoch, for whom bahati refused to withdraw his candidacy, kept his seat.
With 16, 912 votes, Billian Ojiwa of William Ruto’s UDA came in second.
The Machozi singer, running on a Jubilee Party ticket, finished in a distant third place with a meager 8,166 votes.
In a statement published on his official social media channels, Bahata accused the electoral agency of massive errors in how it conducted the tallying process.
At least 21 polling places in the Mathare constituency, according to Bahati, had been tampered with.
“Dear IEBC, we need clarifications! At the St. Teresa’s Tallying Center, everything is at a standstill, and we can smell rigging plans. stated Bahati.
