UDA aspirants in the North Rift have wound up their campaigns and retreated to strategy meetings ahead of Thursday's primaries.
More than 4,000 aspirants will compete for party tickets in the eight North Rift counties for governor, MP, senator, woman representative and MCA posts.
“In Uasin Gishu, we have more than 550 aspirants competing. We expect the exercise to go smoothly on Thursday,” party coordinator Paul Kiprop said.
Party officials in the region said they had put in place necessary measures and logistics to ensure the primaries are carried out without disruption or violence.
The police will provide security.
“We are prepared for the entire election period starting with the primaries. We will not allow anyone to break the law,” Uasin Gishu county police commander Ayub Gitonga said.
He said teams of security officers will patrol the county to ensure peace.
UDA officials said they will use more than 400 polling stations in Uasin Gishu for the primaries.
There have been claims some party officials had created about 40 more polling stations to facilitate rigging.
Some of the leading aspirants for the governor seat on Sunday threatened dire political consequences should there be attempts to rig.
They claimed a clique of powerful individuals were scheming to rig and had set up a parallel tallying centre at a secret location in Eldoret town.
“Should there be any schemes to interfere with the polls, then we will not support whoever will be rigged in. The party stands to lose immensely,” Ngenyilel MCA David Sing’oei said. He is running for governor.
Supporters of Jonathan Bii, another leading aspirant, expressed fears of interference in the primaries to favour a particular individual.
“We know of all schemes by some individuals to fix the results of the primaries for the governor seat. But we do do everything possible to ensure the pools are free and fair," Bii campaign official Janet Kibitok said.
The most hotly contested seats are those of governor in Nandi, Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet.
(Edited by V. Graham)
