24-Year-Old Linet Chepkorir ‘Toto’ Clinches Bomet Woman Representative Seat

24-year-old Linet Chepkorir, alias Toto, has clinched the Bomet Woman Representative seat after defeating eight other candidates.

Toto, who vied on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket, was declared the winner of the election after garnering 242,775 votes, becoming the youngest politician to join the 13th parliament. Her closest opponent nominated senator Alice Milgo of CCM got 43,180 votes.

“I feel so happy am so grateful being the women rep-elect for Bomet county at this particular age. I want to thank Bomet residents for voting me in despite my age or size of the body. I want to empower women, youths and people to living with disabilities, all of them through groups,” she said in her acceptance speech.

She came into the limelight in April when she won the UDA party nomination for the position of Bomet woman representative, trouncing 10 other aspirants who were eyeing the ticket.

Before joining politics, Toto had just completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Procurement from Chuka University. She grappled with financial challenges during her campaigns and relied on the support of friends and well-wishers.

“I decided to join politics and run for this seat because it has always been my dream to serve people,” Chepkorir said in a past interview.

“As a lady and having stayed with my mother at home for long, I know the challenges that women go through and my focus will be to support them with available resources allocated to the office.”

At one point, Toto was denied entry to Deputy President William Ruto’s (UDA presidential candidate) home in Karen for a meeting as security detail thought she was an intruder.

“After about an hour, I was allowed in after I showed them my passcode to the meeting, electronically generated for members who had paid the UDA aspirants fee of Sh6,000,” she said.