The government is reluctant to encourage voter registration in Mt Kenya region because of deputy president William Ruto’s popularity in the area.
Nyeri governor aspirant Wahome Mwangi said on Saturday that, unlike in the previous mass registration drives when chiefs and their assistants would mobilise, they have now taken a back seat and are not rallying people to register.
“The Mt Kenya Foundation would also come at around this time and camp in the region to mobilise but now they are not doing that because they know the region will vote for the DP,” he said.
Mwangi who is also the county UDA coordinator, however, said they have committed themselves as aspirants to ensure they mobilise the youth to register.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Nyeri Elections coordinator Aluisia Kanini last week said there was apathy among many youth who want incentives to register.
By end of last week, only 6,941 people had registered since the exercise started on October 4, out of the target of 148,000 which is about five per cent of the target.
Some senior government officials led by President Uhuru Kenyatta who is the region’s kingpin, have thrown their weight behind opposition leader Raila Odinga in the 2022 presidential contest.
Mwangi spoke after a meeting of UDA aspirants at Senior Chief Wambugu Hotel in the outskirts of Nyeri town.
He said the aspirants agreed that those who will lose in fair and free nominations will support those who will have won on the party ticket.
Nyeri Speaker John Kaguchia who is eying the Mukurwe-ini MP seat said the popularity of the DP has been increasing since the opposition declared Raila as their presidential candidate.
“As we are talking now, the deputy president is more popular than he was just about six months ago in this region,” he said.
He said they were aware that there are some people who have been trying to come up with narratives that he was not as popular as he was then but the truth is that his popularity has gone up with a huge margin.
Kaguchia said the aspirants were organising themselves so that all of them can participate in the elections.
“It is the desire and aspiration of every person who is here that we shall have fair nomination for all contenders hoping to vie on a UDA ticket,” he said.
He said fair nomination was important for them and that is what they discussed in the meeting to ensure only popular aspirants get the nomination certificate.
-Edited by SKanyara
