Campaign Tracker: Notable events in Kenyan elections as of June 22
Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto.
The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition is not amused by the alleged use of state resources by Kenya Kwanza’s presidential candidate, Deputy President William Ruto, to campaign and wants the electoral agency to do something about it.
Former Kiambu governor William Kabogo also poked holes in the perceived influence of DP Ruto’s running mate Rigathi Gachagua in Mt Kenya, saying Azimio’s running mate, Martha Karua, is stronger.
The Wiper party is expected to announce its replacement in the Mombasa governor’s race today. A court gave it 72 hours to do so after blocking former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko from the race last Sunday.
The Campaign Tracker summarises all these political events for you as the August 9 elections draw closer. Here is all you need to know about Kenya’s politics as of June 22.
Raila reports Ruto to IEBC over use of state resources for personal political gain
Azimio la Umoja One Kenya flagbearer Raila Odinga has opened a new battlefront with his bitter foe in the succession race, DP Ruto, over the use of state resources in his presidential campaigns.
Mr Odinga’s camp has written to the electoral agency over this matter.
In a letter to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) boss Wafula Chebukati, Azimio wants the agency to address at least five issues to ensure a level playing field ahead of the elections.
It wants the IEBC to issue a cease-and-desist order to stop Comptroller of State House Kinuthia Mbugua from facilitating the Office of the Deputy President. The coalition wants Mr Kinuthia to stop authorising funds for hospitality services at the DP’s office, as “they’ll be used in political gatherings”.
“Section 107 of the Elections Act states that a member of the [IEBC], or any person designated by the Commission, shall have the power to impound or to order the impounding of any state resources used in an election campaign,” states the letter signed by Azimio secretary-general Junet Mohamed.
“We are perturbed by the fact that the DP continues to use state resources both prior to and after the official campaign period [started].”
He said the use of state resources confers on the DP undue advantage over his competitors.
“He has redirected all the official top-of-the-range vehicles attached to his office to his campaigns. These vehicles are fuelled and maintained by the taxpayer and, therefore, ought to be deployed for official government business not the Deputy President’s campaign,” states the letter.
Azimio also wants the IEBC to stop the DP from holding political gatherings in his official residence.
Mr Odinga’s camp says Sh23,967,500 of the Sh575,963,916 approved budget for the DP’s office in the 2022/2023 financial year goes to hospitality services.
Azimio also raised concerns that the DP has retained numerous civil servants who are public officers and whose main role, it says, is to campaign for him in the mainstream and social media outlets.
DP Ruto orders disgruntled Kenya Kwanza affiliate party leaders to leave Gachagua alone
Dr Ruto has defended his embattled running mate, Mr Gachagua, as “the strongest of all the five who contested the position”.
The politicians who had been shortlisted were Tharaka Nithi Senator Prof Kithure Kindiki, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro and Kandara’s Alice Wahome.
Dr Ruto’s remarks were seen as an attempt at damage control after some Kenya Kwanza principals dismissed Mr Gachagua as divisive, dictatorial, abrasive and arrogant.
This came on Monday, two days after Chama Cha Kazi’s Moses Kuria and Tujibebe Wakenya’s William Kabogo — and a day after The Service Party’s Mwangi Kiunjuri — complained that Mr Gachagua was pushing affiliate aspirants to the wall.
Dr Ruto is certainly not pleased by these antics.
“When I settled on him as my running mate, he was being opposed on grounds that he is very strong … that I needed someone who was soft and lowly placed in stature ... But I insisted that I needed that strong person and highly placed …,” said Dr Ruto in Njoro, Nakuru.
He dismissed critics of Mr Gachagua as “suffering from an inferiority complex, who once they see another person going up the ladder of influence, they start fearing him … I am not like that. I seek that we succeed together and we can only collectively succeed together if we unite to deliver on our mission”.
In the strongest hint so far that Dr Ruto is not willing to negotiate on Mr Gachagua and the status of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in the Mt Kenya region, the DP said he is only interested in working with bold people and those with a solid stand on issues.
Karua urges Mt Kenya to vote for Raila in August polls
The Azimio running mate, Ms Karua, yesterday urged Mt Kenya residents to vote for Mr Odinga on August 9.
Speaking in her Kirinyaga base, where she returned barely a week after she made whistle-stop tours in Mt Kenya counties to vouch for Mr Odinga’s candidacy, Ms Karua called on residents to turn out in large numbers and vote for Azimio’s flagbearer whom, she stressed, has lasting solutions for Kenya’s problems.
Addressing roadside rallies in Makutano, Pia, Ngurubani and Mutithi, Ms Karua pleaded with residents “to join other Kenyans and give Mr Odinga a chance to lead”.
“I know people from this region have not been voting for Odinga over the years. But this time I ask you to be generous enough and give him votes because of me,” she said.
“I shall fully represent you in Mr Odinga’s government and therefore cast your votes in favour of the Azimio presidential candidate.”
Accompanied by other Azimio leaders and musicians, Ms Karua said Mt Kenya residents had been honoured by Mr Odinga and locals should reciprocate by overwhelmingly voting for him.
“If you want [Mr Odinga and I] to win in the first round, don’t divide your votes. You should ensure Azimio bags all the votes from this region where I was born and brought up,” she said.
Since independence, she said, women from the region had not been this close to the seat of power.
“Help me become the second-in-command. I’m ready to serve you as the Deputy President,” she said.
UDA ward rep candidate attacked, ejected from Gachagua’s event in Kirinyaga
Chaos erupted yesterday at Kimiigua Youth Polytechnic in Kirinyaga County as goons ejected a UDA ward rep candidate from an economic forum as locals waited for Kenya Kwanza presidential running mate, Mr Gachagua, to arrive.
Chaos erupted after the Karumandi ward seat hopeful, Caroline Muriithi, was forcefully led out of the forum, sparking protests from the hundreds of locals attending the function.
Governor Waiguru and other local UDA leaders were also present during the melee.
It took the intervention of police officers to rescue Ms Muriithi from the hostile attackers, who accused her of undermining a senior UDA political leader from the area.
Speaking to the Nation later, Ms Muriithi, said she was standing close to Governor Waiguru when the goons attacked her and attempted to strip her naked.
"They violently got hold of me and started frog-marching me out of the forum as if I was an outsider," she said.
She accused those behind the goons of tarnishing the names of Mr Ruto and Mr Gachagua.
Ms Muriithi, who won a ticket in UDA nominations, said no amount of intimidation would deter her from expressing her political opinions.
DP Ruto: I’ll deport all Chinese selling mitumba, roasting maize in Kenya
DP Ruto said he would deport Chinese nationals engaging in business that can be done by Kenyans if he forms the next government.
Speaking during a Kenya Kwanza economic forum at Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi yesterday, Dr Ruto argued that Chinese nationals should not engage in retail and kiosk business and roasting maize.
“Those are Kenyan businesses and those engaged in such business, we have enough airplanes to deport them back to where they came from,” said Dr Ruto.
“We have agreements with different countries on what level of business or work is to be done by locals and which one is allowed, where foreigners must have a work permit. And that level is not selling in kiosks, retail or roasting maize.”
The DP’s statement followed concerns raised by Mr Nelson Iruku, an electronics trader in Nyamakima, who complained that the Chinese sell traders goods and after the traders have created a market for the products, the foreigners come to Kenya to engage in the same business, selling cheaply and driving locals out of business.
“They send their children here to take over the market from us yet we cannot be allowed to do the same in China. If there is a law that can outlaw the Chinese to stop engaging in the same business which I can do, then that will help us. We don’t have a problem with other nationals,” said the trader.
Mwaure Waihiga to bring back money stashed abroad
Agano party presidential candidate Mwaure Waihiga has put on notice Kenyans mentioned in the leaked Pandora Papers that revealed people who have stashed money in offshore accounts, saying they will bring the wealth back home if he wins the presidency.
“I do not want to reveal that I will insist on how Nigeria treated its former President Sani Abacha by demanding that he return all the billions he had stolen from his people … I do not want to scare anyone, but of course, they will have to bring back all that money,” he said on Radio Taifa on Tuesday.
The Nigerian government in 1999 recruited Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini to get hold of the cash Abacha was suspected of stealing from the Nigerian economy in his rule that lasted from 1993 to 1998.
Mr Waihiga, who said he has 35 years of legal practice in Kenya, would direct the Attorney-General to issue a general alert to all banks in the world to disclose any accounts held by prominent Kenyans who have been in power.
“I am a member of the clergy and I come with no integrity blemish. I will demand that all the diplomats in the country help us get our looted money back to be pumped into our economy,” he said.
“I'm seething with good anger at the turn of events in this country [with the] high cost of living, including [the prices of] foodstuffs, raw corruption and escalating national debt ... We are neck-deep in the mess. I want to rescue my motherland and people before they drown.”
Karua a serious threat to Gachagua’s influence in Mt Kenya, Kabogo says
Mr Kabogo, the Tujibebe Party leader and a principal in DP Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza alliance, hinted that he might explore linking up with Roots Party presidential aspirant George Wajackoyah.
Mr Kabogo, the former Kiambu governor who is seeking to reclaim his seat and is heavily challenged by Senator Kimani Wamatangi of UDA party, Chama Cha Kazi’s Mr Kuria and Thika Town MP Wainaina wa Jungle (independent), has been restless lately, complaining about being undermined as a senior leader in Kenya Kwanza.
This same complaint was echoed by Mr Kuria and the two have written a letter to the Kenya Kwanza secretariat demanding to know whether they are still valued.
Political pundits have opined that maybe the UDA heat has become too hot to bear in Kiambu politics and the two might be looking for an exit route that will give them an opportunity to repackage themselves.
Mr Kabogo, answering questions on NTV on Monday, declared that Wajackoyah, who says he would legalise marijuana if he is elected President, has cut himself a niche as the third force ahead of the August 9 General Elections.
He added that “the nomination of Martha Karua to be Raila Odinga’s running mate ate into Kenya Kwanza’s Mt Kenya support and the picking of Mr Gachagua as Dr Ruto’s running mate eroded popularity that had been won.”
He said Ms Karua immediately gobbled up at least four percent of Dr Ruto popularity “while the nomination of Gachagua brought us substantial popularity problems and it is something, if not said, then we have abdicated honesty…there are those who do not want to be associated with that truth but it is something that is there … the social media is full of that evidence.”
Wiper to pick another Mombasa governor candidate
The Wiper party, which had nominated former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko to vie in the Mombasa gubernatorial race, now has less than 24 hours to nominate another candidate to vie for the seat in his place.
This is after the IEBC Dispute Resolution Committee on Sunday upheld the decision of Mombasa returning officer Sala Yusuf to disqualify Mr Sonko because he was impeached as Nairobi governor.
A court also said Mr Sonko had not produced an original degree certificate from Kenya Methodist University and when he finally did, it was past the deadline.
On Monday, the IEBC gave Wiper 72 hours to find Mr Sonko’s replacement.
