Former assistant minister Bishop Margaret Wanjiru staved off a spirited challenge from Maina Kamanda to regain her Starehe seat in a hotly contested by-election. In other by-elections in the wider Nairobi area Kabogo of Juja beat business tycoon Thuo to win the Juja parliamentary seat while Mbuvi of Makadara beat Reuben Ndolo and immediate former MP Dick Wathika. The three by-elections were occasioned by court rulings that nullified results from the 2007 general election. As is typical of most by-elections, there was very low turnout with only 44%, 43% and 35% of the registering voters bothering to show up in Makadara, Juja and Starehe respectively.
