Parallel teams emerge,champion UhuRuto campaigns in North Rift

Deputy President William Ruto and Uasin Gishu County governor Jackson Mandago (left), during Jubilee rally at Kapseret Constituency, where they asked residents to vote for Jubilee goverment in Eldoret yesterday. 10.06.2017. PHOTOS BY PETER OCHIENG/STANDARD

Two parallel Jubilee campaign teams have emerged in the Rift Valley as opinion over the adoption of six-piece voting pattern remains divided.

Both teams are, however, campaigning for the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto for their second term.

One team is led by Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago and backs election of all Jubilee nominees while the second faction led by Senator Isaac Melly and party nomination losers is against the six-piece voting pattern.

Their existence has elicited mixed reactions in a region that has previously been solidly behind the DP Ruto.

Over the weekend, Melly’s team traversed Baringo county maintaining it was not interested in the six-piece voting but as it sought  support for Uhuru.

“We want Kenyatta to be elected on August 8 and as a team, we are working closely with other political parties and not Jubilee nominees who were voted in during the shambolic primaries,” said Melly who is also part of the team in charge of Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia and West Pokot counties.

The ‘Uhuruto express’ team comprises more than 100 coordinators  including Baringo Central MP Sammy Mwaita, Governor Benjamin Cheboi, Dr Julius Kones ,and Mosop MP Stephen Bitok among other leaders.

“We are aware that attempts to campaign for those who won might create more divisions among leaders and the electorate thus our focus on Kenyatta whom we believe has been tried and tested. His development promises has been fulfilled and deserves a second term,” he added.

Speaking in Baringo, Mwaita took issue with the Opposition for linking the Jubilee administration to corruption and challenged it to explain to the country how its members  acquired property  while in government.

The Uhuruto Express shifts its campaign to Trans Nzoia on Thursday and  insists that its existence is in line with Uhuru’s call on the electorate to elect any person of their choice at the grassroots posts but drum up support for his presidential re-election in August. [The president hasn’t made such a uniform, nationwide call]

Some Jubilee nominees in the region have taken offence over the existence of the team and questioned its agenda for choosing to support the presidency and not all those who were elected in the party primaries. Nandi senate nominee on Jubilee ticket, Kiprotich Cherargei, dismissed the team saying “they have already shown bias for not standing with those who defeated them in the primaries”.

“As Jubilee, we are rooting for six-piece voting pattern because it will be of no use for Kenyatta to be elected without a backing of a good number of MPs, senators, governors, Woman Representatives and MCAs,” he noted.

In a recent rally in Kericho, gubernatorial nominee Stephen Sang, who is in Mandago’s team, called on the electorate to stand by all Jubilee candidates across the country.

“A six-piece voting pattern as advocated by JP leaders is a retrogressive relic that should not come from top leaders,” said Nicholas Koech, an independent governor candidate for Nandi County.

He said all independent candidates had agreed to operate under the slogan ‘Let the people decide’, adding that democracy should prevail and the manifestos of respective contestants “should speak louder than party chanting”.

“If we go by party loyalty, then we will forget about development. We urge JP to refrain from calling for ‘six-piece’ voting,” said Mr Koech.