Battle for Senator Mohammed Kuti's seat begins in Isiolo

Senate, Dr. Mohammed Kuti addresses the press at Serena Beach resort and Spa in Mombasa.

Just days after Isiolo Senator Mohammed Kuti announced he would quit politics, the battle to succeed him has begun in earnest.

In an April 16 letter he sent to Sakuye elders who were attending clan meeting in Garba-Tula, the Senator said he would not defend his seat in the 2017 polls, citing health reasons.

"After 15 years of serving you as your political leader, and now that my health is not that great, I intend to retire from politics in 2017," reads Kuti's letter.

The senator asked his clan to remain united and urged it to identify a new political leader.

"I decided to alert you early so that you can organise yourselves and not be left out of the larger political alliances in the county," he wrote.

Kuti served as the MP for Isiolo North between 2003 and 2013 before he was elected as the county's first senator in 2013. He also served as a Cabinet minister in the Narc government.

Nicknamed 'Baba Yao', Kuti has been calling the shots in Isiolo since 2003. In the 2013 polls, his URP team, including Governor Godana Doyo, swept nearly all elective seats in the county.

As the clan's 21 hayyu (supreme elders) and 42 jalab (elders) meet in Garba-Tula again on August 26 to deliberate on who they should endorse to be their next leader, jostling for Kuti's position has already begun.

Contenders include former Kuti ally Abdi Nyabure, nominated Senator Fatuma Dullo, Abdi Koropu, who unsuccessfully vied for the Isiolo South parliamentary seat in 2007 and 2013, and NGO official Abduba Molu.

Mr Nyabure, who is from the populous Warfura sub-clan, is a businessman based in Juba, South Sudan.

Mrs Dullo, a Warfura and Kuti ally, was nominated to the Senate on a URP ticket.

Businessman Koropu  is from the Migo sub-clan that claims to have been marginalised by the current administration. He vied for the  Isiolo South seat on TNA ticket in 2013 but lost to URP's Abdullahi Banticha.

Mr Molu is from Kuti's Matharba sub-clan.