Leaders spend sleepless nights in an attempt to lock Jubilee out of Western region

The Mumias Sugar Company factory. NASA claims the Jubilee government has done nothing to revive the sugar sub-sector in Western Kenya. [File, Standard]

Unfulfilled promises, collapsed industries and claims of being abandoned by the Jubilee government are the key planks National Super Alliance (NASA) campaigners are using against Jubilee Party in Western region.

The NASA team, which has vowed to ensure that the whole region throws its weight behind presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga, has accused Jubilee of marginalising the region in its five years in office.

They said several industries in the region were on the brink of collapse while the Government continued to give false promises and brag about projects launched in other regions in the country.

Regional NASA presidential campaign co-ordinator Khalid Njiriaini said Jubilee had failed to deliver its 2013 campaign promises and deliberately ignored Western region and other NASA strongholds.

“The Government promised to revive the sugar industry, which is on its deathbed, and still nothing has happened,” Mr Njiraini, told journalists on Tuesday.

He accused the Government of allowing senior officials to import cheap sugar to frustrate Western Kenya and other places in Nyanza stronghold that rely on sugar production for income.

He also accused the Jubilee administration of selling other industries, including Pan Paper, to private investors.

The campaign team also claimed that despite spirited efforts to get answers from the Government on the mysterious deaths of some of the region’s leaders, including businessman Jacob Juma, they were yet to get justice.

Second-class citizens

“The people of Western Kenya have been treated like second-class citizens for a long time and that is why we are going to do our best to ensure that Jubilee’s efforts to infiltrate the region will not have any impact on our resolve to vote them out,” said Njiraini.

Already, the team has changed its strategy on how to counter Jubilee’s attempts to challenge NASA in the region and are now conducting door-to-door campaigns and strategies meetings to consolidate support for Raila.

Njiraini said Jubilee's efforts in the region were fruitless, adding that all local leaders had vowed to mobilise support for Raila.

The region is set to be one of the major battle grounds in the August 8 polls.

“We are not leaving anything to chance and that is why we are not just going to meet supporters at shopping centres but we are also going to engage them at a personal level,” he said.

“We will visit them in their homes and explain our agenda to them and tell them why we must support Raila’s bid to become the country's fifth president."

Already, both Jubilee and NASA have launched spirited campaigns in the region as they seek to outdo each other in a popularity contest.

Effective healthcare

Njiraini said apart from Jubilee's unfulfilled pledges in the region, others - including the creation of jobs, effective healthcare, food security and laptops for Standard One pupils remained pipe dreams.

“It is because of these unfulfilled promises and the ills done to our communities that we are now strongly rooting for the removal of the Jubilee government from power,” he said.