William Gitau

William Kabogo Gitau is a Kenyan politician. He was the first and former governor of Kiambu County[1] and a member of The National Alliance (TNA), one of the allied parties that merged to form The Jubilee Party.[2]

William Kabogo Gitau
1st Governor of Kiambu County
In office
27 March 2013 – 2017
Succeeded byFerdinand Waititu
Member of the Kenyan Parliament
In office
2010–2013
ConstituencyJuja
Personal details
Born (1961-04-04) April 4, 1961
Komothai village in Githunguri
NationalityKenyan
Political partyTujibebe Wakenya Party
Alma materPanjab University (BCom)
OccupationPolitician

He won the governorship in the March 2013 general election. He is the immediate former Juja MP, a seat he won in the 2010 by-elections, trouncing Alice Wambui of Kenya National Congress who was a distant second, while the previous MP George Thuo of PNU was third.[3] In 2017, he lost the jubilee ticket and conceded defeat way before the results were announced.

In 2017, he was defeated by his rival Ferdinand Waititu in the nomination for the Jubilee gubernatorial ticket. Thereafter, he quit the Jubilee Party and declared that he would contest for the seat as an independent candidate but also lost to Waititu.[4]

Early life and education

Born on April 4, 1961, in Komothai village in Githunguri, Kabogo attended St George's Ruiru Primary School, then Thika Technical School between 1975 and 1978 before joining Punjab University, India, for a bachelor of commerce degree.

Political career

Kabogo burst into the political scene in 2002 when he contested for the Kanu ticket for Juja Parliamentary Seat (Uhuru Kenyatta was then Kanu's presidential candidate) and lost to incumbent Stephen Ndichu. He immediately decamped to the little-known Sisi Kwa Sisi party and went ahead to defeat Ndichu in the general elections. Kabogo unsuccessfully defended his seat in 2007 when he lost the seat to George Thuo. He successfully petitioned the election of Thuo and when the by-election was called, he buried his political nemesis with a landslide victory on a Narc-Kenya ticket.

In 2013 Kabogo contested and won the Kiambu Gubernatorial Elections to become the 1st Governor of Kiambu County. In 2017, however, he lost the seat to Ferdinand Waititu after failing to grasp the Jubilee Party ticket, which then considered pivotal to the success of candidates, particularly in Kiambu County, Uhuru Kenyatta's backyard. In hindsight, his attempt to win the seat by contesting as an independent candidate was futile.

Potential misinformation on social media platforms.

A false statement [5] was circulating on social media platforms that William Kabogo had conceded defeat in the May 2021 parliamentary by-election for Juja constituency. The statement was analysed by PesaCheck which is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative in collaboration with Code for Africa-the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator, who found out that the statement was FAKE.

References
  1. "Govt revokes 345 irregular land titles". Daily Nation. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
  2. "Narc kenya Upsets PNU and ODM to clinch Juja and Makadara seats". The Kenya Weekly Post. 20 September 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
  3. Daily Nation, 20 September 2010: PNU trounced in Juja as ODM wins Starehe
  4. "Kabogo to defend Kiambu governor seat as an independent candidate » Capital News". 14 May 2017.
  5. PesaCheck, PesaCheck (25 May 2021). "FAKE: This statement purportedly issued by former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo is fabricated".


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