Factions emerge in Jubilee Party strongholds ahead of officials’ list

A group of women who had attended a Jubilee Party meeting at the party offices in Nakuru's Milimani Estate on October 15, 2016 run for dear life after a group of rowdy youth disrupted the meeting hitting them with rotten eggs. The meeting was called by a faction led by Naivasha businessman James Karimi to deliberate on party matters. Photo by Steve Mkawale/Standard.

Trouble is simmering among members of Jubilee Party (JP) in its strongholds of Central Kenya and Rift Valley ahead of the unveiling of interim party officials.

Even before the national officials are unveiled, leaders are jostling for positions at the grassroots ahead of party primaries. National officials are expected to be unveiled next week by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

Factions have already emerged in Nakuru, Narok, Murang’a, Meru, Kiambu, Kirinyaga and Nyandarua counties.

Some overzealous leaders are falling over themselves as they open offices across the counties and appoint interim officials, despite the JP national office warning against the move.

In Nakuru County, Governor Kinuthia Mbugua and Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri have been put on the spot over their attempts to impose party leaders on the people.

County Assembly Speaker Susan Kihika and outgoing Nacada chairman John Mututho have mobilised some 100 aspirants to try and stop those attempts.

Ms Kihika, who has declared her interest for the Senate seat, has teamed up with Mututho — the contender of the governor’s seat — to thwart any attempts by Governor Mbugua and Mr Ngunjiri to dictate who the party officials at the county level would be.

Re-election bids

Mbugua and Ngunjiri have been working together for their re-election bids and are believed to be fronting city lawyer Karanja Kabage for the Senate seat.

The two have roped in Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama, Jacob Macharia (Molo), Moses Cheboi (Kuresoi North) and Naivasha’s Joseph Kihagi to back a group of interim county party officials led by James Karimi as chairman.

Mr Karimi is said to have opened a JP office at Nakuru Showground and paid Sh8,000 rent for the month of October.

Karimi’s lineup comprises Harrison Muiruri, the former TNA Nakuru branch chairman, as interim branch secretary and Joseph Bett, a former Nakuru deputy mayor, to act as vice chairman.

But MPs David Gikaria (Nakuru Town East), Nelson Gaichuhie (Subukia), Joseph Kiuna of Njoro and Gilgil’s John Mathenge — seen to be aligned to Kihika/Mututho camp — have dismissed the lineup supported by Mbugua and Ngunjiri.

Mututho said only bona fide office holders elected through a democratic process will claim legitimacy and mandate to open the local branch.

But during his recent visit to Nakuru, Ruto told off the local leaders and aspirants, saying he and the President do not back any group.

“Jubilee Party is yet to appoint interim officials, so anyone claiming they have my backing and that of the President are misleading you,” he said at a funds drive in Rongai for a women group.

Political pundits say both groups believe that anyone who determines the party’s interim officials would have an upper hand in the nominations.

“It is all about party primaries. The factions are positioning themselves ahead of the nominations because they know party officials will be key during the signing of nomination papers,” observes Andrew Nyabuto, a local political commentator.

In Narok County, political rivalry between Governor Samuel Tunai and Narok West MP Patrick Ntutu played out recently when the latter threatened to open another JP office barely a week after the governor did the same.

Speaking at a political rally last weekend in Kilgoris where he opened a constituency party office, Ntutu said he was in Jubilee to stay and was ready to battle it out with Tunai in the nomination for the governor’s seat.

Tunai opened the county party office in Narok town in an event attended by Narok East MP Lemanken Aramat and his Kilgoris counterpart Gideon Konchella.

Mr Ntutu said all Jubilee leaders were not involved in opening the office, yet they are equal party members.

It is the same script in Mt Kenya  region where supremacy battles  have dominated the political scene since JP was launched.

The stakes are so high in Nyandarua that two parallel camps have emerged to run JP affairs. While Nyandarua Governor Daniel Waithaka is leading all elected MPs to appoint a team of 18 interim officials, a camp led by former Kanu supremo Kimani Gakenia is leading another team of aspirants and maintains they are  the bona fide interim officials.

“It is in public domain that former JAP officials were the ones to become the interim JP officials,” said Gakenia.

But the Waithaka group has dismissed the team, terming them as masqueraders. In Kirinyaga, governor aspirants Anne Waiguru and Muriithi  Kagai have been irked by Governor Joseph Ndathi’s decision to open offices and appoint interim officials.

Waiguru queried the manner in which the purported elections were conducted without bringing on board all stakeholders.

Ndathi dismissed the claims, saying he only facilitated election of interim officials since “a house cannot be left without a head”.

In Murang’a, Kandara MP Alice Wahome and a group of four aspirants seeking to unseat her opened two parallel party offices. The two offices were opened just a few metres from each other.

The four aspirants — Samuel Kamau, Pius Ngugi, former MP Maina Kamau and Njuguna wa Ruth alias PMG — accused Wahome of sidelining them by opening the new constituency office without involving them.

In Mt Kenya East, the brouhaha appear most brazen in Meru, where a faction led by Senator Kiraitu Murungi, Woman Rep Florence Kajuju and Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi have been spearheading a campaign to form a county co-ordinating team.

When the trio called a meeting of aspirants on October 2 at Thiiri Centre in Meru town, there was an outcry from those who feel the team cannot spearhead fair and credible primaries as they are themselves aspirants.

Those who skipped the meeting included governor aspirants Kilemi Mwiria, Mwenda Mbijjiwe and city lawyer Mugambi Imanyara.

-Reports by Steve Mkawale, Robert Kiplagat, James Munyeki, Wainaina Ndung’u and Munene Kamau