Kethi Kilonzo among four cleared for Makueni race

By Daniel Nzia and Onesmus Nzioka

Makueni, Kenya: The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has cleared four candidates to contest for the Makueni Senate seat.

They are Kethi Kilonzo of Wiper under the CORD alliance, Jubilee’s Prof Philip Kaloki, John Harun Mwau of PICK and Jane Kitundu of Labour Party of Kenya.

Kethi was escorted to the Catholic Multipurpose hall in Wote by the CORD brigade led by luminaries Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula.

There was anxiety in and around the hall as reports emerged that the late Mutula Kilonzo’s daughter may not be cleared over her alleged failure to register as a voter.

It took the IEBC County Returning Officer Mr Guracha Salad Boru and his team more than one hour to peruse her documents.

At one point midway the process, Guracha asked Kethi and CORD leaders who included James Orengo and MP Daniel Maanzo to give them a break to establish the eligibility of her voters slip.

The team returned after the break to receive the good news of her eligibility to run in the July 22 by election before she was issued with a clearance certificate.

“The registration slip Kethi presented to us today is the property of the IEBC and it is not her duty as a voter to prove the validity of the Commission’s documents,” said Guracha.

Registered voter

He said the slip was enough proof that Kethi is a duly registered voter in Langata, Nairobi.

Guracha said the issue of Kethi being a registered voter or not was in the media and has never been brought to his attention as the Returning officer.

While presenting the certificate to the candidate, the Returning officer asked any party disputing her eligibility to file it with the Commission’s disputes resolutions committee for arbitration within seven days as required by the law.

By the time of going to press, there were unconfirmed reports that a fifth candidate was expected to present his papers for clearance.

Kethi’s candidature poses a stiff challenge for the seasoned politicians in the race as she is a popular with the voters.

This is after the electorate Voters in the region have openly declared they would vote for her in honour of Mutula Kilonzo, her late father.

The late Mutula running on a Wiper party ticket garnered over 192,000 votes against his closest challenger Harun Mwau running on a PICK ticket who garnered just about 52,000 votes.

In January during the party primaries, Mutula then Education Minister, trounced then Agriculture assistant minister Gideon Ndambuki

Kethi shot to fame during the recent presidential petition where she among a team of lawyers representing African Centre for Open Governance (Africog’s).

She has, however, had to wade-off opposition when her step-mother Nduku Kilonzo announced her candidature for the same seat, Kethi was forced to publicly declare that she cannot run against her mother as it is a curse.

Raila’s ODM and Ford Kenya, who are the other partners in CORD, agreed to back Kethi and have been on the ground campaigning for her since she was unveiled as the coalitions candidate for the seat.

Harun Mwau is a however, a seasoned politician and businessman having represented Kilome in Parliament.

Mwau unsuccessfully run in the 1992 presidential General Election and with his wealth, he is expected to oil a strong campaign team.

Prof Kaloki is also not new in politics having represented Kibwezi in the last Parliament and unsuccessfully running for the Makueni gubernatorial seat.

 — Additional reporting by Philip Etyang