By Moses Njagih

After hammering a deal to support Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta in the elections, leaders of major political parties with strong presence in Mt Kenya region are now faced with the tricky subject of joint parliamentary nominations.

The party leaders are in talks to cobble up an alliance that would see them hold joint nominations to improve their chances of having the numbers that would help their man have powers to control Parliament in case he wins.

The need to ensure command of numbers in the houses – Senate and National Assembly – has especially been necessitated by the debacle after the last elections. It was hard for PNU to convince the world that its presidential candidate Mwai Kibaki had won the elections by having fewer elected MPs compared to his opponent Raila Odinga.

Kibaki loyalists have been arguing their candidate won the majority vote, but failed to command Parliament since they lost seats after fielding many candidates.

“We lacked a common strategy since those who took part in PNU nominations and lost opted for other parties. In the end, the electorate who supported Kibaki was divided among the many candidates, giving ODM an edge over us,” says Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi.

In rooting for the region to face the elections, even at a parliamentary level, on the same front, Uhuru has been using the 2007 elections as an example.

“That is where our problems emanated. We faced the polls divided with the only common position being our support for Kibaki. The rest of us retreated to our parties. This way we sacrificed seats that are even in our strongholds to our opponents,” says Uhuru.

New scheme

It is a repeat of this that the leaders are trying to avoid in their new scheme to dodge a situation where their candidate ends up winning the elections but without convincing numbers to push Government agenda in Parliament.

“It is crucial that even as we campaign for our candidate, we ensure we work out a plan where he will have sufficient numbers to take control of the House, or risk a repeat of what happened,” said Mathira MP Ephraim Maina, chairman of the Mt Kenya MPs’ Forum.

But the plan for joint nomination among aspirants eyeing the polls on Uhuru’s TNA, Kiraitu’s APK, GNU and DP, who have agreed to support the DPM’s candidature, already looks in jeopardy with strong forces within the region opposed to the idea.

Kiraitu admits that though the idea has not been exhaustively discussed, aspirants are against joint nominations.

“They are afraid of being short-changed.  While they have no problems supporting Uhuru and attending joint rallies, they want to go it independently at the elections,” the minister concedes.

The Imenti South MP says the matter is being discussed within the structures of various parties.

Political realities

He says: “If it is not possible to reach an agreement, we will have to deal with the political realities on the ground. We can devise a system of how those elected from different parties will work together in Parliament once elected”.

“This has not yet been discussed but we can go for a pre-election agreement to ensure we have the numbers in parliament,” Kiraitu added.

GNU leader Mwangi Kiunjuri is more cautious on the issue, saying there are still more challenges on the newfound unity that needs to be addressed before nominations are handled.

“We are jumping the gun discussing the issue now since there are many other challenges facing our coalition that we first need to address,” says Kiunjuri, the Laikipia East MP.

But the leaders appears to be in agreement that though they may not have joint nominations in Central, they may be forced to agree on such an arrangement in other areas, which they consider as complicated.

They are in agreement that unless they have joint nominations in areas they lost in the last elections, a similar scenario could easily be repeated.

“In areas such as Nairobi, Nakuru, and Mombasa where our internal competition could make us lose, we desperately need to agree on joint nominations,” says the Energy minister.

Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu, a key campaign man for Uhuru in Nairobi, agrees with this position. He says anything short of a common plan in these areas could see the DPM’s friendly parties lose in the city.

“Sacrifices have to be made and hard decisions taken but if we will not put aside our egos, defeat stares at us in the face,” said Waititu.

His Embakasi constituency is among those given by PNU as examples of seats they had lost in the last elections after fielding more candidates supporting Kibaki but dividing the votes.

Waititu captured the seat after a by-election following the death of former MP Mugabe Were, who was elected on ODM ticket.