Blow for Maliti as running mate decamps to support Waita

Maendeleo Chap Chap party Machakos governor candidate Francis Maliti has suffered a blow after his running mate ditched him to support for State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita.

Rose Wambua who ditched the Machakos deputy governor's camp stating that she had realised that they were headed nowhere, and she had joined the winning team.

"I looked into Nzioka Waita's track record, he is on another level management, administration, education wise, what he has done and where he can take us," she said.

Wambua addressed the press at Mbondoni Catholic Church in Kangundo subcounty on Sunday.

She later joined Waita and his running mate Florence Mwangangi in a joint campaign at Kangundo shopping centre.

Wambua said she compared Waita and Maliti and realised that she was in a bad 'marriage'.

"We were undergoing lots of problems in Maliti's camp. I realised that it was difficult to start solving those problems. I noticed we couldn't clean up the dirt in the county while in that camp. I couldn't carry that baggage," she stated.

"I said let's get a new broom that can sweep dirt in Machakos with a person who has a good track record," Wambua added.

She said her decision was prompted by the fact that Waita was the one who could transform Machakos County hence the need to vote in one basket.

Waita welcomed Wambua to his camp saying that her decision to join their team was a confirmation that party politics alone won't salvage Machakos County.

"It's politics of leaders uniting and it doesn't matter the political party from which leaders subscribe to, or have come from," he said.

Waita said his dream for Machakos was a government of unity.

"The problem isn't politics but poverty. Leaders should remove their political attire and get united so that we know what we can do to the common mwananchi to solve lots of problems they undergo such as lack of water, education, poverty, and hunger," he noted.

The ex-State House Chief of Staff said his administration will offer Wambua a CEC position if elected into office.