By Paul Mutua
KITUI, KENYA: Narc party leader Charity Ngilu has maintained that she is in the Jubilee Coalition and adds that she will trounce Uhuru Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi in the coming presidential nominations.
Adding that she is indispensible in the Jubilee coalition, Ngilu rubbished claims that she has been locked out of their nominations.
“Despite the varied media reports, I know the Jubilee Alliance needs me because they are actively engaging me in consultative talks. I’m ready to wrestle it out with Uhuru and Mudavadi in the primaries and I’m confident I’ll beat them to capture the presidential ticket,” she said.
Speaking to secondary and primary head teachers from Kitui County at Parkside Villa Hotel, Ngilu said she had all it takes to mobilise the Kamba vote to support and vote for the Jubilee Alliance.
She urged the teachers and the entire community to rally behind her now and after she was picked the alliance’s torch-bearer to gun for presidency in March 4, 2013 polls.
Ngilu cautioned against wrangling in the alliance, saying a united coalition stood a better chance to win the next General Elections, based on the latest regional voter registration statistics.
The minister said she was not in politics to deliver victory but to gain power with the purpose of service to the electorate.
She cautioned the Kamba against joining political alliances which did not define benefits they will offer them after assuming the presidency.
The minister said since Jubilee was poised to form the next government she did not want her supporters be locked out of government.
Accompanied by Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo, former Kitui South MP Mwangu Ivuti, and other aspirants, Ngilu took a swipe at the assertion by Prime Minister Raila Odinga that the Cord government would push for the ICC cases against four Kenyans were referred back to the country.
“It is pointless for the country to wait for the Cord government to seek the referral of the ICC cases facing Uhuru and Ruto. Whenever they speak they pledge to help bring the cases facing Uhuru and Ruto back to the county once they assume power next year. This is political gimmick. Why not now?” she asked.
Kiema criticised Raila's stand that the Cord government would tax all idle land saying it was a move to deprive the poor rural folks of their land as they would be dispossessed if they failed to raise taxes.
“That is a way of taking land from the poor and we will not accept. We want to say the Kamba community has a lot of land for grazing and we will not allow that government to take away our land unjustly,” Kiema said.
Her claims come a day after a section of leaders in the Jubilee Coalition denounced her candidature saying that she will not be in the running for the flag bearer position.
