Will Wanjiru tilt ODM nominations for governor?

By JACOB NG’ETICH

The return of Bishop Margaret Wanjiru to ODM fold and her interest in the governor’s seat is causing excitement in the Orange party.

The contest had narrowed down to immediate former Mumias Sugar Managing Director Evans Kidero and former Nairobi Town Clerk Philip Kisia who are contesting on the ODM ticket.

Starehe MP’s interest for Nairobi Governor has increased the number of aspirants to six. However, it is not clear if the court case against Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu for charges of hate speech and incitement will affect his candidature.

The others are Nairobi Central Business District Association chairman Timothy Muriuki, and businessman Jimnah Mbaru who was once a board member of the City Council of Nairobi Steering Committee in the late 1990s.

The Housing Assistant Minister may complicate the contest for ODM given that she could enjoy the Kikuyu vote in the city against the two – Kidero and Kisia – who will have to share votes among their ethnic blocs.

According to observers Wanjiru may suffer over her indecision to defect to TNA and her subsequent return to the Orange party has painted her as an indecisive politicians who feared a serious contest.

Front runner

According to Dr Jackson Kivuva, a Political Scientist and a lecturer at the University the entry of Wanjiru in the race for the governorship is inconsequential.

“The Assistant minister is critically not a serious candidate for the position, as a politician fine but as a governor, I am not sure many Nairobians would trust her to the position,” said Dr Kivuva.

He said the governor was not like MPs who make noise in Parliament, but will be an individual who makes executive decisions and therefore it has to be a technocrat and not a politician. Kidero who is a front runner for the seat believes his candidature would give city dwellers a variety to choose from.

“The more candidates for this seat, the better because it allows people to identify the best from the entire group, but I would tell the city residents that running a multi-billion County like Nairobi needs people who have been tried and tested,” said Kidero.

The former Mumias Sugar Company MD said he had left a trail of success in all the companies that he had served in and Nairobi would be a success story but any mistake to get the wrong person in the helm will really hurt the city.

Initially there had been attempts by TNA to woo Kidero to the party because they considered him a strong candidate for the city.

Analysts believe former performances by those who have served in City Council of Nairobi and its politics will likely affect positively or negatively their ability to be elected. Kisia has previously defended his tenure claiming he took over as the Town Clerk when the city was debt ridden but he managed to repay all the debts that had accumulated for a decade.

“For ten years City Hall had not been servicing its debts, leading to a situation that lead to the accumulation of unpaid statutory obligations including workers medical cover, retirees’ benefits,” said Kisia.

He said by the time he came in, some suppliers had withheld their services due to unpaid arrears and the council owed retirees Sh500 million. “When I came in, I hired an audit company to look at the staff verification and staff redeployment, the report formed my basis of restructuring the council,” said Kisia.

However, the accusation of impropriety in the Sh5 billion loan from Equity Bank damaged Kisia’s tenure at the local authority.

“The loan he signed with the bank which became a burden to the CCN and that was a clear case of corruption and ineptness on his part,” Muriuki said.

But he maintained the loan was above board and came in handy to rescue the council from collapse and in the process saved the council Sh4.5 billion. Kivuva said the electorate in Nairobi were enlightened and would easily be looking at one’s past experiences and undertakings before they vote.

“I believe the battle is for two technocrats to fight it out the rest are known and there backgrounds that of politics and not governing which was required in the managing of the city resources,” he said.