UDA aspirants threaten to defect if President Ruto agrees to political zoning

United Democratic Alliance (UDA) aspirants and delegates in Kilifi County have threatened to defect to other parties if President William Ruto succumbs to pressure of political zoning pressure from ODM.

The aspirants said that they have invested heavily in marketing themselves and the UDA party to residents, and it will be an insult if they are told to back ODM candidates in the 2027 general election.

Stephen Kahocho, who is eyeing the senate seat to replace long-serving senator Stewart Madzayo, said they will only support ODM Governor Gideon Mung’aro’s reelection but will compete for all the other positions from Senator, Women Representative, Member of National Assembly and Member of County Assembly (MCA).

“There’s this broad-based arrangement between UDA and ODM, and ODM is  demanding all elective positions in the county if they are to support President Ruto, but we will not allow that to happen because we in UDA have also decided to support Governor Mung’aro’s reelection, and all the other seats should be competitive,” he said.

Kahocho said that he will defect and vie as an independent candidate if the broad-based arrangement forces them to back Madzayo.

“If President Ruto is forced into that arrangement, then I will marshal other aspirants to vie on independent tickets since we also have supporters behind us and we have invested heavily in this thing,” he added.

Ganze MP aspirant Zawadi Kingi challenged the UDA party to allow for party primaries, saying that she was confident of winning the seat.

“We have the sitting MP who was formerly a Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) party member, and he is now in UDA after the party was dissolved, but I have information that the party wants to support his reelection. We as original UDA members will not allow this to happen,” she said.

Her sentiments were echoed by Women Representative aspirant Fatuma Ramadhan, who urged Ruto to allow political competition if he really needed votes from the area.

“President Ruto should allow democracy to reign, and we are asking him to leave us to battle it out in local politics,” she said.

The problems in the UDA party in Kilifi politics have cost it its most vocal and prominent leaders and supporters, especially with the defection of former Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa, who decamped to the opposition two months ago.