Nairobi, Kenya’s seat of power, will be the epicentre of a titanic political battle between the ruling Jubilee Party and the opposition Cord as aspirants set the campaign stage for a do-or-die contest.
The Nairobi governor race, for instance, will feature political heavyweights with virtually bottomless pockets. The electoral commission has permitted the city’s governor candidates to spend up to a staggering Sh432 million per contender – opening the race to massive voter bribery.
But apart from the governor contest, there are Nairobi’s 17 constituencies, where Cord leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta have turned their attention to the battle for parliamentary numbers.
The city will also elect a woman representative, a senator and nearly 100 MCAs.
Incumbent Governor Evans Kidero, an erstwhile boardroom manager and known to have a strong financial war chest, has rolled up his sleeves, preparing for war with nearly half-a-dozen Jubilee aspirants.
Among them is former presidential candidate Peter Kenneth, Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko and nominated MP Johnson Sakaja. Kenneth and Sonko are affluent and are likely to wage a massive war on the incumbent.
Other Jubilee candidates are Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru, ex-Starehe MP Margaret Wanjiru, and businesswoman Esther Passaris.
Water CS Eugene Wamalwa appears to have changed his political game plan and could shift his base to his Trans Nzoia backyard.
But then there is Miguna Miguna, a former aide of Raila Odinga’s, whom some analysts have termed as the game changer in the 2017 contest. Miguna is an independent candidate. “Tribal arithmetic and all other considerations taken into account, Miguna will bleed a lot of votes from Kidero. That means if Jubilee gets it right with either Sonko or Kenneth, they will carry the day,” said political analyst Benji Ndolo.
“Miguna is tapping into votes from everybody who is angry with the status quo. You will see people voting for him in anger. You cannot compromise him, you cannot buy him, he will be the game changer... In fact, Miguna will be what Kalonzo was in 2007.”
According to Ndolo, Kidero’s strongest challenger remains Sonko, despite Kenneth’s last-minute entry into the race. Yesterday, Sakaja, the ex-chairman of the now-defunct TNA that propelled Uhuru to power, exuded confidence that he remains the best. “But it’s not about myself. We must clinch this thing as Jubilee. Even within our team, I am very confident that I am the best candidate, but if we agree on somebody else, I will support that candidate, and make sure they implement the bulk of my policies as well,” he told the Star.
Sakaja says he will focus on youth and women’s empowerment, create job opportunities, invest in massive infrastructure, including a mass transit system, and invest in what he calls ‘Sakajacare’. “I have already unleashed one plank of my policies that is called Sakajacare. Through Sakajacare, we want to make sure that 486,000 of the most vulnerable households will have fully paid full medical insurance, the cost is Sh2.4 billion.... Many people are becoming impoverished because of hospitals bill,” he said.
Sakaja says he brings fresh leadership and not a single integrity question, despite handling hundreds of millions when he was TNA chairman.
Kidero has no challenger in ODM and the rest of Cord –– at least for now.
But despite criticism from his opponents, Kidero says he has achieved much and that solving “Nairobi’s 50 years of neglect was never going to be achieved overnight”.
He lists seven key pillars of his administration, among them successes in water and sanitation, transport, housing and infrastructure, and security and interethnic development as well as education and youth development. He says, for example, that he built a 120-bed maternity wing at the Mbagathi Hospital in 2014 and recruited 226 health workers who he says have reduced maternal deaths to zero since 2015.
The governor also says his government has installed more than 6,000 high-mast floodlights in informal settlements, improving security by 50 per cent. “Sh80 million has been disbursed so far to more than 700 needy, but academically endowed students in Nairobi through the Governor Kidero Bursary,” his communication office told the Star yesterday.
Kidero also says Nairobi is the first county to launch EjijiPay, in June 2014, an ICT payment system that he says has curbed corruption and reduced cash handling. However, audit queries by Auditor General Edward Ouko are likely to be the governor’s major test.
Woman representative aspirants in Nairobi include the incumbent Rachel Shebesh, businesswoman Millicent Omanga and city lawyer Karen Nyamu.
Other candidates are nominated member of the Nairobi County Assembly Bernadette Wangui Ng’ang’a and Mountain View MCA Beatrice Kwamboka. Kwamboka is the only known ODM candidate so far.
The Orange Party is yet to publicly unveil its senatorial candidate, amid allegations that nominated Senator Elizabeth Ongoro may make a stab at the job. In 2013, ODM won seven parliamentary seats in the capital and Jubilee won 10.
Traditionally, ODM has controlled Westlands, Ruaraka and Kibera.
Jubilee strongholds include Roysambu, Kasarani, Starehe and Dangoretti South. The key battlegrounds include Mathare, where incumbent the Steve Kariuki is battling ODM lawyer Anthony Oluoch. Other war zones are Kamukunji and Makadara and all the three constituencies within the larger Embakasi Estate.
Yesterday, Raila asked Nairobi aspirants to concentrate their energies on constituencies that they can win. “There are some areas like Roysambu, Starehe, Kasarani. We cannot win seats there. So we need to be smart. Instead of taking people there, take them to swing areas like Makadara,” Raila said when he met the aspirants at Nyayo Stadium.
The former Prime Minister wondered why ODM lost the Senate and Woman representative seat, yet he beat Uhuru for President in the capital.
Raila secured 691,156 votes against Uhuru’s 659,490 in 2013.