The Jubilee Party is going all out to win the Kuria vote in NASA’s Migori backyard in the presidential rerun on October 26.
On Wednesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP William Ruto hosted more than 2,000 delegates from the community. Delegates always leave these meeting with gifts and promises intended to sway their votes.
Jubilee legislators from the region — Kuria East’s Marwa Kitayama and his Kuria West counterpart Mathias Robi (pictured), hosted the meeting.
They pledged to ensure Uhuru gets more votes than on August 8.
Those results were nullified by the Supreme Court, which cited enormous irregularities and illegalities. It said the results cannot be relied upon.
Uhuru had 41,951 votes (65 per cent of the cast votes) against Raila Odinga’s 21,202 votes (34 per cent).
However, Suba MP and ODM national chairman John Mbadi has said the Kurias cannot fall for Jubilee’s
“primitive and pathetic politics of handouts”.
“The number in State House will not represent the voters in Kuria. We plan to have rallies in the region to directly talk to residents. Politics of State House handouts ended during the Moi era,” he said.
But Robi said the community will vote for Uhuru.
“Raila’s brand of politics has no place in Kuria. He will never be President. Since Independence, we have been ignored, but we’ve seen development under the Jubilee administration,” Robi, a Jubilee pointman in Nyanza, said.
He cited the tarmacking of Masara-Kehancha-Tarang’anya, Mabera-Nyamosense roads, building of Kehancha TTC and Mabera Technical Institute. Establishment of two new subcounties — Ntimaru and Mabera — has buoyed the JP campaigns.