Muslims do not care which party wins the March 7 Malindi MP by-election so long as their interests are taken care of, a top cleric has said.
“We as Muslims are marginalised not only in Kilifi but also countrywide,” Sheikh Shariff Badaway told the Star on the phone yesterday.
Badaway is the Kilifi secretary general of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya.
He was among clerics who met Jubilee’s Coast point man Suleiman Shahbal at a Malindi school last Thursday.
Shahbal is wooing Muslims to vote for Jubilee’s candidate Philip Charo.
Charo is supported by rebel ODM leaders, including Coast Parliamentary Group chairman Gideon Mung’aro.
However, Muslim clerics are leaning towards Attas.
“Attas represents our best chance,” Badaway said.
Also vying for Malindi MP is ODM’s Willy Mtengo, who was cleared by the IEBC alongside Charo and Attas yesterday, despite claims he had forged academic papers.
Malindi’s population of 207,253 is largely Muslim.
