Kilonzo challenges Wiper's decision to issue Malombe direct ticket

Kitui governor hopeful Kiema Kilonzo has instructed lawyer Erick Mutua to challenge Wiper's decision to issue former county boss Julius Malombe with a direct ticket.

Kilonzo was expected to square it with Malombe for the Wiper ticket on Thursday, April 21.

The party, however, declared Malombe as its flag bearer at an National Governing Council meeting on Monday.

Mutua on Tuesday said he is under instructions from Kilonzo to pursue all available avenues to overturn the decision.

“We are going to explore the Wiper party dispute resolution mechanism and the political parties’ resolution avenues. If all that fails, then we will eventually end up in court,” he said.

The advocate said he is in the process of writing to Wiper headquarters for the nitty gritty as well as the grounds for sidelining Kilonzo and issuing the certificate to Malombe.

He said this will be done before filing a formal complaint.

In a text message in response to our inquiries Kilonzo, the former Kenya’s envoy to Uganda, confirmed that he had instructed his lawyers to seek justice.

“It is against the Political Party Act, which provides for the party to issue a ticket through either consensus or nominations,” he said.

Kilonzo had earlier in the day snubbed a Wiper election tribunal meeting where he had been invited alongside Malombe.

The meeting was an attempt to break the deadlock on who among the duo would be ideal candidate to fly the Wiper flag.

Malombe attended the Monday meeting and a decision was made to hand him the Wiper ticket.

The decision was consequently communicated to and ratified by the Wiper National Governing Council chaired by party leaders Kalonzo Musyoka later on Monday.

The official ceremony to hand over the Wiper certificate to Malombe was scheduled to take place at the SKM Command Centre before noon on Tuesday.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)