By BILLY MUIRURI bmuiruri@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Friday, February 18 2011 at 21:00
In Summary
- Narc-K leader says her candidate’s loss in Kirinyaga Central does not mean she has been weakened
Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua on Friday dismissed claims by her PNU rivals that she had been weakened politically.
The 2012 presidential aspirant said her candidate’s loss in Wednesday’s Kirinyaga Central by-election did not mean she had no support at the grassroots.
She dismissed claims that Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta had eclipsed her in the battle for Mt Kenya region.
“It was not a contest between me and Uhuru. If it was not a competition between Mr Gitari and Mr Karaba, then the war was between me and President Kibaki,” she said in an interview.
She claimed the support the PNU candidate was getting was sanctioned from State House and therefore her candidate was against a powerful State machinery.
“They broke every rule in the book. They should do an economic analysis and see how much they spent and the votes they got against what we spent and the votes we got. Then they can tell who has the people,” said Ms Karua.
Mr Joseph Gitari of PNU beat Narc-Kenya’s Daniel Karaba by 1,839 votes in the by-election. The election had been billed a popularity contest between Ms Karua and Mr Kenyatta.
The victory was seen as Mr Kenyatta’s revenge after his dismal performance in Juja and Makadara by-elections last year where his preferred candidates lost by big margins.
Juja is in Mr Kenyatta’s backyard and PNU candidate, former MP George Thuo, was relegated to third position. Narc-Kenya’s William Kabogo won with a landslide. PNU also lost in Makadara to Narc-Kenya’s Gidion Mbuvi.
On Friday, Ms Karua insisted enormous government resources, including vehicles, were deployed in the area contrary to election rules.
“We saw the Provincial Administration being involved openly, money ditched out and a lot of human resource from Nairobi here. But we managed to prove we are no push-overs,” she said.
She said the government could get away with it in a by-election but not a general election.
“I will, however, draw on the lessons learnt and move on,” she said
The former Justice, Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs minister said her presidential bid was intact and her party was strong enough to mount a serious campaign.
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