Interior PS Karanja Kibicho. [Phillip Orwa, Standard]

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho has received over 50 party officials from the county who defected from the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to Jubilee.

The defectors who arrived in UDA party gab were offered the red Jubilee caps and T-shirts by Kibicho in a ceremony at Kagio in Kirinyaga County on Saturday.

Dr Kibicho said the 50 were former UDA ward officials who had sensed they were in the wrong party and returned home. 

Former Senator Daniel Karaba was among the defectors who left Mwangi Kiunjuri's The Service Party (TSP) party for Jubilee, saying he was not intimidated by anyone but joined the winning party in the next elections.

Kibicho said at the event that the government will not arrest Gatundu North MP Moses Kuria over the recent allegations which have been associated with purported rigging of the 2013 and 2017 elections. 

Kibicho said leaders such as Kuria were only seeking sympathy votes should they face government sanctions. 

Kibicho said Kuria's rigging allegations are mere propaganda from a section of politicians who have sensed defeat but want Kenyans to offer sympathy votes to them in the August elections.