Nairobi — Little known candidates beat political giants in North Rift in one of the most dramatic elections ever witnessed in the country.

Among the casualties is the once powerful minister and wealthy politician, Mr Nicholas Kipyator Biwott.

Others who fell by the wayside are the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Kipruto arap Kirwa (Cherangani) and Assistant Minister, Mr Stephen Tarus (Emgwen).

As had been expected, voters overwhelmingly voted for ODM candidate, Mr Raila Odinga, in the presidential race.

Raila got an avalanche of votes from almost all constituencies in the region with Mr William Ruto's Eldoret North contributing a whopping 79,000 votes.

The area which was controlled by Kanu for over four decades is now firmly under the grip of Raila's ODM.

Twelve new faces out of the 19 candidates from the region will sit in the Tenth Parliament.

Mr Jackson Kiptanui Kamai, 38, claimed the biggest scalp.

He upset Biwott, the self-proclaimed "Total Man", who had used a helicopter to shop for votes as Kamai covered hundreds of miles on foot searching for votes.

The result was perhaps one of the biggest and most humiliating defeats in Rift Valley.

The margin between Kamai and Biwott was a massive 20, 000 votes and neither the loser nor his agents had any complaints.

Among those who survived the strong ODM wave were former Marakwet East MP Linah Jebii Kilimo who stood on Kamlesh Pattni's Kenda party.

Kilimo's victory was least expected as she fought a lone battle against a well-oiled ODM campaign machine.

She, however, benefited from the bitter rivalry between ODM's Mr Sammy Tangus and ODM-Kenya's Mr Charles Yano who fell out after the ODM nominations.

Kilimo scored 9,150 votes while Tangus managed 7,418 with Yano garnering 6,344.

In the presidential race, Raila scooped 19,857 against President Kibaki's (PNU) 2,947 and ODM-Kenya's Kalonzo Musyoka's 255.

Raila got more votes than all parliamentary candidates who won their seats on ODM tickets.

Debutants and former high school teachers, Mr David Kibet Koech and Ms Peris Chepchumba Simam, lived up to their billing as favourites and convincingly won the Mosop and Eldoret South seats respectively.

Koech scored 30,763 beating former MP John Sambu who managed a paltry 1085 votes.

Also to emerge from the larger Nandi District with Koech were former permanent secretary Dr Sally Kosgey and former athlete Elijah Lagat.

The fall of 'Total Man'

In Keiyo South, Kamai was declared the new MP by presiding officer Mr Joseph Mibei after garnering 30,830 votes against Biwott's 9,483.

Voters in the constituency overwhelmingly voted for Raila in the presidential race. Raila got 36,203 votes against President Kibaki's 2,521.

Biwott stayed away from the tallying centre from the start of counting on Thursday until the final results were announced at 8.30 a.m. yesterday.

Those who defected from ODM after the nominations like David Koros (ODM-K) in Eldoret South lost.

In Trans Nzoia District, Joshua Kutuny another newcomer received 13,458 votes against Kirwa's 11,263 while Dickson Masindano who defected to New Ford-Kenya after Kirwa was welcomed to Ford-Kenya received 6,488, with Nathaniel Tum of ODM-Kenya garnering 5,974.

Kirwa had defected to Ford-Kenya a few weeks before the campaign period perhaps expecting to cash on a swing ethnic vote.

In Saboti, Eugene Wamalwa received a whooping 59,294 to beat ODM's Chebukati Wanyonyi Wafula's 9,211 votes.

In the neighbouring West Pokot District, ODM-K performed very well in Kacheliba constituency, home of party chairman Samuel Poghisio.

The former area MP had managed 3854 votes against PNU's Rev John Lodinyo's 2433 after three quarters of the votes had been counted.

ODM candidates Mr Emanuel Ichor Imana (Turkana Central) and Mr David Nanok (Turkana North) cried foul over alleged massive vote rigging in the area.

PNU candidates Mr David Ekwee Ethuro and Mr John Munyes and President Kibaki were headed for victory with only a handful of ballot boxes from far-flung areas remaining.

Apart from Turkana, jubilant voters in the region poured onto the streets to celebrate the victory of ODM candidates and Eugene Wamalwa's.