Kenya's Most Authoritative Political Newspaper

Citizen Weekly

Monday 16 February 2015

Fireworks at Kajiado by-elections

High profile campaigns for the Kajiado Central by-elections are in top gear with claims that the Jubilee Alliance Party candidate Patrick Tuitui is being sabotaged by the region’s leaders in the Jubilee coalition.
Tuitui has been  complaining that the immediate former MP Joseph Nkaissery who is now the cabinet secretary for Internal Security has been campaigning against him.
It is against such fears that Uhuru Kenyatta summoned the two leaders together with a number of Narok Central leaders for a reconciliation meeting at State House.
Sources say Nkaissery and Tuitui have been sworn political enemies and have been facing off during previous general elections. During the last general elections, Tuitui was TNA’s candidate but lost to Nkaissery who was flying the ODM flag. Nkaissery garnered 17,332 votes against Tuitui’s 8,456 votes. Others were Elijah Kenchory of KNC, 7,565 and Stephen Nkabashi of URP who garnered 2,856 votes.
The March 16 by-election is expected to produce political fireworks should Nkaissery continue with his behind-the-scenes lobbying and campaigning for the Cord candidate Elijah Kanchuri. Sources say although Uhuru brokered the peace deal between Nkaissery and Tuitui, Nkaissery’s supporters are still vowing to vote for the ODM candidate to teach Tuitui a lasting political lesson.
Although analysts say that it will be a do-or-die race between Jap and ODM, going by the previous voting pattern in the constituency based on clan politics, ODM has better chances of retaining the seat.
Uhuru is however said to be a worried man after several aspirants allied to the Jap defected to ODM after the party carried a shambolic nomination which gave the party’s ticket to Tuitui.
Leading the defection was  Kanchori, who came second to Tuitui, but whom residents claim was more popular and was rigged out. Trouble for Tuitui started when the second and third candidates, Elijah and Anthony Kiroken, failed to turn up to congratulate him after ‘winning’ the nominations. Only Joyce Kimojino, who garnered 40 votes and came last in the Jubilee nominations, was at hand to sign on the final tally and to shake hands with Tutui.
Although the State House meeting seemed to have ended up with Nkaissery reluctantly accepting to support Tuitui, sources say clan factor is going to play out during the by-election.
This has put Nkaissery in an awkward position since he is not allowed to publicly involve himself in politics, his supporters are divided over backing Tuitui who is Nkaissery’s sworn political enemy or supporting Memusi, their clansman.
During the Jap nominations, the man Nkaissery and his political loyalists supported in the Jubilee nominations, Anthony Kiroken, emerged third after posting 5,866 votes. Tuitui garnered 10,502 votes against Memusi’s 8,848 votes.
                                              

No comments:

Post a Comment