Special groups protest over biased MCA nominee lists

Members of lobby group in Kinango Constituency in a show of solidarity during a briefing at Lotus hotel Mombasa. Photo: Kelvin Karani, Standard

Special interest groups have threatened to challenge in court what they termed as unfair political party nomination lists.

In Naivasha, residents rejected the only candidate from the constituency terming her a 'foreigner'.

Cultural, religious, disabled and women leaders wondered what criteria had been used in the exercise which saw constituencies with low number of voters benefit at the expense of Naivasha.

Naivasha, which has the highest number voters in Nakuru County, got only one seat where Gladys Kairu, who is alleged to be a sister of Naivasha MP Jane Kihara, was nominated.

According to the chairman of Gikuyu Cultural Association in Nakuru County George Njoroge Mathew, the nominee is not a resident of Naivasha and is registered as a voter in Kabete.

Flanked by the other leaders, Njoroge said Naivasha had been given a raw deal.

"In Naivasha, we gave Jubilee over 100,000 votes and have received nothing while a constituency like Gilgil which had 40,000 voters got five slots in the nominations," he said.

In Taita Taveta County, a section of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) are up in arms, accusing the party leadership of failing to consider special interests and marginalised groups in the nominations.

They now want the party leader Raila Odinga to intervene so that  IEBC can degazette the list.

Thursday, ODM officials drawn from Voi, Mwatate, Wundanyi and Taveta branches threatened to move to court to stop next week's swearing in of MCAs.

“There is no single person living with disabilities in the list of nominated members. Members of the special interest groups have unfairly been locked out and we will not allow the party to continue breaching the law. That is why we have decided to go to court to stop the swearing in ceremony slated for Tuesday next week,” said John Maghanga, the ODM Voi branch chairman.

In the nomination list, ODM is supposed to nominate six MCAs, followed by Jubilee Party with three, SDP two while Ford Kenya and Wiper parties have one slot each.

Separately, Voi MP Jones Mlolwa has also rejected the ODM nomination list.

"We want the list changed to ensure that ODM members benefit from nomination and not "outsiders". I demand the party leadership to change the nomination list," said the ODM legislator who had lodged a complaint to the party leadership Thursday.

The outrage was also witnessed in Kwale, where People Living With Disabilities (PWDs) and civil society groups have also threatened to go to court.

Mr Mwalimu Ali, who is the County's Co-coordinator of PWDs, said that the swearing in of MCAs slated for Thursday next week will be stopped if the list of the nominees will not include persons with disabilities.

Mahmoud Barroh, who is the co-ordinator of Msambweni Human Rights Watch, said the ODM list was full of people from Mombasa County.

In Taita Taveta, ODM Co-ordinating Organising Secretary Raphael Mwawughanga said some politicians in the list supported independent candidates and should not have benefited from the party nomination.

In Kwale, Badi Mwalimu, who topped the list of ODM on PWDs, said it was not a favour political parties was doing to them but a requirement by the law.

And PWDs in Trans Nzoia County have also expressed disappointment over failure by political parties to allocate them nomination slots for MCA.

Led by their chairman Josephat Barasa, the group protested that they had been discriminated in the nomination slots.

Jubilee Party was allocated eight slots while Ford Kenya, an affiliate party in NASA, had six and the group said they expected any of the party to pick one of them.

Jubilee Party youths in Kisii County have protested failure by the party to nominate one of them in the County Assembly.

-Reporting by Renson Mnyamwezi, Tobias Chanji, Mukamburi Mwawasi, Anthony Gitonga, Osinde Obare and Edwin Nyarangi

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