Sunday, June 9, 2013

Cord and Jubilee in a do-or-die hunt for Makueni flagbearers

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The late Makueni senator conferring with his daughter, Kethi Kilonzi, together with Hon. Ababu Namwamba at the Supreme Court during CORD's election petition.
The late Makueni senator conferring with his daughter, Kethi Kilonzi, together with Hon. Ababu Namwamba at the Supreme Court during CORD's election petition.   NATION MEDIA GROUP
By BOB ODALO bodalo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, June 8  2013 at  20:06
IN SUMMARY
  • It follows that there are those within the Cord leadership who feel that Ms Kilonzo would likely reap a political benefit from that court appearance coupled with the sympathy votes she is likely to get following her father’s death.
A fierce battle is taking shape with 42 days to go before voters in Makueni County go back to the ballot box for the second time in four months to elect a new senator.
The seat fell vacant following the death of Mr Mutula Kilonzo on April 27.
The task of choosing the candidates for both the Jubilee and Cord alliances before the Wednesday deadline was not an easy one.
The Jubilee coalition has already approached three senior politicians from Makueni – former Kibwezi MP Philip Kaloki, former assistant minister Gideon Ndambuki and a former Makueni MP, Mr Peter Kiilu – to run on a Narc ticket which is a coalition member.
Whoever the coalition settles on will likely fight it out with lawyer Kethi Kilonzo, a daughter of the late Makueni senator, who has been approached by both former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka of the Cord coalition to be the flagbearer.
Ms Kilonzo rose to popularity during the Supreme Court petition filed to challenge President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win where she was representing Africog, a non-governmental organisation.
It follows that there are those within the Cord leadership who feel that Ms Kilonzo would likely reap a political benefit from that court appearance coupled with the sympathy votes she is likely to get following her father’s death.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had given parties a deadline of last Wednesday to identify their nominees for the July 22 contest.
However, the parties have not officially anounced their preferred candidates.
The political circumstances ahead of the by-election are significantly different from the way things were in the run-up to the March 4 elections.
By then, the two main coalitions were fighting for numbers to succeed former President Kibaki. But today, Jubilee is in power.
Wiper was the party of choice in Ukambani in the March 4 elections, winning all the three senate seats in the region – Machakos (Johnstone Muthama), Makueni (Mutula Kilonzo) and Kitui (David Musila).
But the Cord coalition led by Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka is now the minority in both the Senate and the National Assembly. And Wiper must work extra hard to retain the seat if the events of the past week are anything to go by.
Soon after the burial of Senator Kilonzo in Mbooni on May 9, Wiper identified Ms Kilonzo as the best suited candidate to succeed her father.
But by June 5, the deadline given by the IEBC for parties to identify their candidates, she had not declared her interest.
A former Kenya National Union of Teachers national treasurer, Mr Benson Kithuku, was the only person who had paid the Sh150,000 nomination fees. This worried the Wiper leadership and their Cord coalition partners.
“What followed was a last- minute top-level search for Ms Kilonzo to salvage the situation,” says a close aide of Mr Musyoka’s.
Mr Musyoka personally went for Ms Kilonzo in the company of party chairman David Musila.
Even with this meeting, Ms Kilonzo, 36, and a mother of one, still had second thoughts about joining politics.
“Her adamant position saw calls being made to convince her to change her mind; one such calls came from Mr Raila Odinga,” said the aide who requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak for Wiper party. It was a big relief for the Cord side when Ms Kilonzo finally accepted to give the Makueni seat a try.
The Wiper party worry is understood. Mr Musyoka has three crucial members of his party who have been poached by the Jubilee coalition in the run-up to the by-election.
In the absence of Ms Kilonzo, the Wiper leadership was comfortable with either former Kibwezi MP, Prof Philip Kaloki, former assistant minister Gideon Ndambuki or former Makueni MP Peter Kiilu.
But a big shock came the way of Cord when the three quit Wiper to join two partners of the Jubilee two weeks before the June 5 IEBC deadline.
Narc’s new leader Kiema Kilonzo told the Sunday Nation in a telephone interview that the Jubilee coalition has agreed that a candidate who will fight it out with the rest in the July 22 by-election will go through the Narc ticket.
“What I can confirm to you is that Prof Kaloki, Mr Ndambuki and Mr Kiilu have quit Wiper party and are bona fide members of the Jubilee coalition; from them we will pick our candidate,” said Mr Kiema Kilonzo, who took over Narc after party leader Mrs Charity Ngilu was named Cabinet Secretary.
Asked whether the decision by Ms Kethi Kilonzo to join the race had complicated their strategy, Mr Kilonzo said: “There is no way you can for now compare Manchester United FC (meaning Jubilee coalition) to Arsenal as far as performance is concerned, we are on top of things.”
The seriousness with which the Jubilee coalition is trying to snatch the Makueni seat from Cord was reflected in a series of meetings that President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto held with Prof Kaloki, Mr Ndambuki, Mr Kiilu and the Party of Independent Candidates of Kenya (Pick) boss John Harun Mwau who since the March 4 polls has inched closer to the ruling coalition.
Mr Ruto’s United Republican Party’s deputy secretary-general Fred Muteti said that in a bid to get a winning formula, the four politicians have been meeting to get the best out of the numbers to face the opposition in the by-election.
The Sunday Nation confirmed that the four met in one of Mr Mwau’s offices in Nairobi last Wednesday for several hours before meeting again at a top city hotel the next day.
“Following the meetings, the four have agreed to support Prof Kaloki as the joint Jubilee candidate for the seat,” says Mr Muteti.
With the Cord and Jubilee coalitions having settled for Ms Kilonzo and Prof Kaloki respectively, the main battle for the control of the Makueni county seat has just started.
Prof Kaloki flew out to the US last Thursday evening and is expected back on Tuesday to officially launch his bid.
Testing grounds
Ms Kilonzo, on the other hand, appeared to have started testing things on the ground ahead of the Senate duel as yesterday she had her first public meeting where she was a guest at the Mukaa Girls’ Secondary School’s prize-giving day.
It was hoped that she would use the occasion to officially announce her entry into the Makueni senate race.
On the wings to reclaim the same glory are other candidates – a US-trained retired nurse, Mrs Jane Kitundu of the National Labour Party, novelist David Maillu and Musau Mwania Junior.
However, with news that Ms Kilonzo had joined the race, Mwania Jr will have to reconsider his candidature as he is related to the late Kilonzo’s family. His aunt Nduku is Mutula’s wife.
He announced his bid last week after news went round that Kilonzo’s family would not field a candidate.
Mwania Jr, 28, is a businessman and a grandson of one of the most successful pre- and post-independence businessmen in Ukambani region -- the late Musau Mwania.
Novelist Maillu spoke to the Sunday Nation last week and announced that he was in the race. Mr Maillu is a Kanu member.

Mrs Kitundu has been cleared by her party to contest.

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