•Kiema Kilonzo has ruled out the possibility of attending the meeting at which the national executive committee will try to resolve the impasse.
•Close aides of Malombe said he will attend the meeting since he was a member of the NEC and hopes a decision will be made to give him a direct ticket to fly the Wiper flag.
Image: MUSEMBI NZENGU
The Wiper party will on Monday hold a crisis meeting to resolve the stand off surrounding the party nominee for the Kitui governor seat.
Former Kitui Governor Julius Makau Malombe and former Kenya’s High Commissioner to Uganda Julius Kiema Kilonzo, are battling for the ticket.
They are differing on the method to be used to pick either of them.
Kiema Kilonzo has ruled out the possibility of attending the meeting at which the national executive committee will try to resolve the impasse.
Close aides of Malombe said he will attend the meeting since he was a member of the NEC and hopes a decision will be made to give him a direct ticket to fly the Wiper flag.
The long drawn deadlock over the Wiper nominee that has prevailed for weeks, saw former Kitui Senator David Musila who had returned to Wiper late last year quit the party a second time.
In 2017 he quit, citing being rigged out during nomination for the governor ticket in favour of Malombe.
Following a short stint, he once again left Wiper last March protesting an opinion poll that showed Malombe was more popular than others seeking the ticket.
Then Wiper was keen to use the opinion poll to make its pick.
The exit of Musila who was also eyeing the Wiper ticket to contest the Kitui governor left Malombe and Kilonzo to battle it out for the ticket.
Musila immedately joined the Jubilee and was handed the ticket.
Kiema and Malombe have taken different and firm positions on the method each of them thinks is ideal to pick the best.
Numerous consensus-building meetings chaired by Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, have not borne fruits as none of the two is ready to cede ground.
Malombe said Kalonzo had stated months ago the party would rely on a less acrimonious and divisive scientific survey method to pick its nominee, and should thus go by the results of several opinion polls that put him ahead of his competitors.
However, Kilonzo has opposed the idea saying it was an affront to democracy.
He has remained firm that scientific surveys or opinion polls were open to manipulation to give false outcomes. He has vouched for nomination by wiper members through universal suffrage.
Kilonzo said the Wiper constitution and the Political Parties Act did not recognise opinion polls as a means of conducting primaries.
He said he had had enough of attending meetings to thrash the Kitui wiper governor nominees matter.
Kilonzo sees in it ,the attempt by Malombe to bring both of then to a round table for consensus while according to him the matter had already been dealt with.
He said during a meeting on April 12, that it was agreed that both be subjected to a nomination process by universal suffrage.
“The attempt by Malombe to re-open the issue amounts to diversionary politics aimed at preparing ground for his other actions. I do not agree with such a move and hence I am not prepared to attend,” Kilonzo said in a letter responding to the invite.
He said together with his team they had used millions of shillings in preparation for the nomination exercise. He said he was optimistic that the Wiper party would pick its candidate during nominations on April 21.
Malombe's close aide Fredrick Kathenge said his position was that he would not participate in the nomination that could be skewed and manipulated in favour of his opponents.
“Malombe will attend the Monday NEC meeting and his irreducible position is that opinion polls including those commissioned by Wiper have shown him as the most popular Kitui governor candidate and he should be given direct ticket.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
Image: MUSEMBI NZENGU