• Both Lenku (ODM) and Nkedianye (Jubilee) got direct nominations while Metito beat two others to win the UDA ticket.
• In this year’s election, both Metito and Lenku who hail from Kajiado South subcounty, will be facing off with Nkedianye from Kaputiei in Kajiado East subcounty.
Battle lines have been drawn in the Kajiado gubernatorial race, with incumbent Joseph Lenku, his predecessor David Nkedienye and MP Katoo ole Metito getting their respective party tickets for the contest.
Both Lenku (ODM) and Nkedianye (Jubilee) got direct nominations while Metito beat two others to win the UDA ticket.
Nkedianye lost the seat to Lenku in the 2017 general election. Metito will however be making a maiden stab at the county's top seat after representing Kajiado South in the National Assembly for four terms.
Nkedianye won the 2013 election on the ODM party ticket. He was also running on the Orange Party ticket when he lost in 2017.
Clan leanings are key in this election and played a huge role in Nkedianye's win in 2013. Nkedianye comes from the Kaputiei Maasai of the Red Cows clan (Odomong’i).
In this year’s election, both Metito and Lenku who hail from Kajiado South subcounty, will be facing off with Nkedianye from Kaputiei in Kajiado East subcounty.
Katoo and Lenku come from the Kisonko subclan, and on the other side, Katoo shares clan lineage with Nkedianye (Odomong’i). Lenku is from the Black Cows clan(Orokiteng).
In every election, age set and clan matters count across the Maa nation. It is all about their leader, their clan, and the age set if those competing come from the same lineage.
Members of both clans are spread all over the county and are found among the Ilkisonko, Ilkaputiei, Ildamat, Ilkeek-Onyokiei, IlPurko, Ildalalekutuk and the Ilmatapato subsections of the Kajiado Maasai.
Metito is a new entrant in the governor's race, but the outgoing Kajiado South MP has been in politics for the last 20 years and has been winning elections all through.
In the 2017 general election, the Jubilee government of President Uhuru Kenyatta was determined to remove Governor Nkedianye from power, and after shopping around, they chose Lenku to fly the party's flag. Metito is among leaders who gave advice on the choice of Lenku.
After Lenku was announced the winner, Nkedianye did not challenge the result in court. Rather, he took a low profile until last year when he announced he would be running again.
Lenku's win was also largely attributed to Kenyatta's backing after he urged the Kikuyu community in Kajiado to vote for him.
The county’s vote-rich basket in the north and Kitengela in the east gave all their votes to Lenku.
This time around, Nkedianye is on the other side of the fence as Lenku moved from Jubilee to Raila Odinga's ODM party for fear of an imminent clash with the former governor in the party nomination.
In the UDA nominations, Metito beat Kajiado East MP Peris Tobiko and former NTSA boss Francis Meja to clinch the party ticket.
Lenku and his supporters were longing for Tobiko to win because it would have worked in their favour.
Lenku would have had an advantage over Nkedianye because the latter would share the Kaputiei and the Odomong’i votes with Tobiko who also comes from the region.
And as the dust settles on the nominations, Lenku will have to face his opponents head-on.
Pundits say Lenku has an uphill task in retaining his seat with the scheming of his opponents after Nkedianye picked MP Joseph Manje from the north as his running mate.
Metito is banking on the inroads made by his UDA party in both the South and North constituencies over the last two years.
He is also hoping that losers in the party primaries will remain loyal and support the winners.
The losers include Daniel Tinaai, who was gunning for the Senate ticket, Tobiko and Janet Teyiaa, who was seeking the ticket for the Woman Representative race.
Teyiaa has since moved on and said she will work with Nkedianye as she prepares to contest as an independent candidate.
Tobiko has not declared her next cause of action.
Should Tobiko shift her support to Nkedianye in protest against her UDA party for not listening to her complaints after the party nominations, then Metito and Lenku might find it rough against the former governor.
Tobiko has a huge following in all the five subcounties and any declaration she makes will be a big favour to the candidate she backs.
However, Kajiado politics remains very erratic and it is not easy to predict the winner of any race.
The same applies to the election of MPs, the senator, woman MP and the MCAs. The number of political meetings taking place during the day and night after the nominations remains huge.
Edited by A.N