His election was unsuccessfully challenged in court by Philip Munge Ndolo, who garnered the 2nd most votes behind Shimbwa.
[4][3] Upon appeal to the High Court of Kenya, a judgment issued on 26 July 2018, upheld his election.
[3] In April 2017, during the ODM party nominations, Shimbwa stormed the polling units with supporters and destroyed voting materials that were to be used for the election.
On April 22, 2017, he was arrested on grounds of allowing his supporters to assault two police officers at the polling station.
[8] On August 2, 2018, after months of legal proceedings, the Magistrate court found him guilty of the charges that he allowed his supporters to destroy election material and also brutally assault two police officers.