Source: the Star
Councilor Lilian Osundwa was yesterday elected the first woman mayoress of Mumias Municipal Council. She succeeds nominated councillor Rashid Omwendo who has held the seat from July 2009.
Lureko ward councilor Dickson Okwako, who has headed the audit committee, was elected the deputy mayor.
Osundwa, the Township Ward councilor, has been heading the education, social services, children and housing committee. The mayoress team, which has been hiding at a secret location in the lead up the polls, arrived at the municipal hall with six councilors and hurried to the hall where elections were conducted. All councillors the victors and the losers described the polls as free and fair. They were followed shortly by their rivals led by the outgoing mayor with a team of four civic leaders.
Lilian trounced her closest contester councilor Dickson Okwako of Lureko ward by four votes to two while the first Municipality mayor councilor Patrick Sakwa of Nucleus ward came third with one vote. During the polls held at the Mumias Municipal hall and conducted by the clerk to the council Joshua Kutekha, Patrick Sakwa was elected the chairman Finance and General purpose committee, Boniface Manda took the Works planning and market committee while Martin Odinga was elected to head Public health and environment committee.
Others are Lydia Abisaki who heads the Education, social services, children and housing committee, Javan Inganga is in charge of HIV and Aids, disabled persons, Alcohol and drug abuse committee while former finance chairman Francis Nayiya takes over the Audit committee.
Anti-riot police took charge of the elections that was anticipated to be marred with violence owing to the pressure that had piled between the two rivaling camps led by former mayor Rashid Rocky Omwendo and the first Municipal mayor Patrick Sakwa.
Giving her keynote speech after being elected the first woman mayoress, councilor Lilian thanked the councilors for electing and pledged to work with the authority employees to better services to the residents. She called for unity of purpose between the civic leaders, council employees and the management so as to achieve satisfactory service delivery to the public. "We shall not move forward if we remain divided as we have been during the campaign period. Let's put our differences apart and work as a team to enable our council move forward" she advised her colleagues.
The outgoing mayor Rashid Omwendo who promised to work with the elected mayoress however asked her to ensure that all council projects are completed before the effects of the new constitution are felt within the local authority.