Woman Who Sold Her Ksh25M House to Fund Campaign Wins Seat
THE STANDARD
- Fatuma Mohamed, the woman who went viral after claiming that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party rigged her out of the party primaries earlier this year, has won the Migori County Woman Representative seat as an independent candidate.
Mohamed was declared the winner after garnering 154,538 votes to defeat several other candidates including ODM’s Dennitah Ghati who polled 117,597 votes.
Other candidates who contested in the election include Jubilee’s Lilian Otieno and independent candidates, Josephine Sirega, Zilpah Ochuodho and Hellen Obado.
Nominated Member of Parliament Dennitah Ghati
Mohamed went viral in April after accusing the ODM party of shortchanging her in favor of Ghati, then a nominated Member of Parliament.
She was captured on video weeping at the Migori Teachers Training College after the rigging allegations.
“Dennitah Ghati is nominated for disabled. She was not nominated because she is disabled. She was nominated because she cannot compete fairly and win.
“She is a weak candidate. She became a Woman Representative in 2013. She did not win, it was negotiated and they took my victory and gave it to Ghati,” Mohamed argued at the time.
“In 2017, I won and they took my victory and gave it to Pamela Odhiambo, the current Woman Representative. Today, I won by a landslide, and they stole my victory again.”
Mohamed added that she had sold her luxurious house to fund her political campaigns, arguing that no one could stop her bid to represent the women of Migori.
“I tried reaching the ODM party officials and they told me they cannot stop the process. I’m telling her, she is one person. I have millions of youths, I have the women and people of Migori,” she stated at the time.
“I have been very fair to the party. They do wrong to me and I knelt down and said it is okay Baba. Why me? I have been spending millions and I sold my house worth Ksh25 million to prove that I want to be a Woman Representative.”
Mohamed becomes one of the few politicians who have defied the ODM wave in Nyanza to emerge victorious in the just concluded polls.
Photo collage between ODM leader Raila Odinga and Migori Woman Rep aspirant Fatuma Mohamed-FILE