A vicious battle for the soul of Nairobi city is shaping up with the big guns set for a titanic clash to succeed disgraced ex-governor Mike Sonko.
The race has been billed as a referendum test run and bigwigs are plotting how to capture the strategic position ahead of the public vote sometime next year.
Wary of the high-stakes in the battle, President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga are said to be working on a compromise candidate to fly the handshake flag.
There are concerns from the handshake team that any false start would offer Deputy President William Ruto political fodder to upstage Uhuru and Raila.
The DP is buoyed by the win in the Msambweni by-election in which his Independent candidate Faisal Bader trounced the handshake favourite Omar Boga of ODM.
On Tuesday, Embakasi North MP James Gakuya, a key Ruto ally in Nairobi vowed that Tangatanga will mount vigorous campaigns to capture the seat.
"We are currently scheming and doing a lot of consultations before we decide on the candidate," he told the Star.
Ruto's Tangatanga camp will, however, walk a political tightrope with the entry into the race of his two allies who are spoiling for a major showdown in the capital.
Former Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu is set to run as an independent candidate while ex-Starehe MP Margret Wanjiru is said to have submitted papers to the IEBC although the party is yet to be made public.
Waititu, a Ruto confidant, faces an uphill task to jump the integrity hurdle with the focus set to turn to the IEBC if it will clear him despite his graft cases in court.
Wanjiru, a Ruto political ally, is seeking to ride on her popularity as former Starehe MP as well as Jesus Is Alive Ministries bishop to turn tables in Ruto who is set to flex muscles in the by-election.
The DP and a host of his Tangatanga allies recently turned up for a major church fundraiser for a multi-billion storey building being built by Wanjiru's church at the heart of Nairobi city.
Most of his allies publicly urged Wanjiru to contest the Nairobi governorship in 2022, weeks before the Senate upheld an impeachment motion against Sonko by the County Assembly.
Exiled lawyer Miguna Miguna is set to fly the ThirdWay Alliance ticket while engineer Kimori Machoka, a former County Executive Committee Member under Governor Evans Kidero will be running as an independent.
The Jubilee Party is said to have cleared ex-Dagorreti MP Dennis Waweru and businesswoman Agnes Kagure as the party's candidates for Nairobi governor by-election.
Waweru is the co-chair of the Building Bridges Initiative secretariat alongside Suna East MP Junet Mohamed while Kagure was Sonko's nominee for deputy governor.
There are reports that former Homa Bay governorship contender Sam Wakiaga and ODM women League leader Beth Siengo are seeking the orange party's ticket.
In the next few days, The Star has established, Jubilee and ODM will close ranks and back the handshake joint candidate to battle it out for the control of the city.
Nairobi ODM chairman George Aladwa confirmed to the Star that Jubilee and ODM will avoid a nasty encounter in the city that could nosedive the handshake fortunes.
“We shall do whatever it takes to avoid sibling rivalry among the handshake team so that we win the seat by a commanding margin,” he told the Star on phone.
According to Aladwa, the handshake victory in the Nairobi contest will affirm the Uhuru and Raila partnership as unshakeable even as the country gears for the 2022 contest.
Raila Odinga's ODM party is tipped to produce a deputy governor while President Uhuru Kenyatta's wing of Jubilee party will sponsor the governor candidate in a bid to craft a handshake government in Nairobi.
“Talks are underway between leaders from both Jubilee and ODM to find a winning formula that will deliver the Nairobi governor seat to the handshake team,” said a senior ODM official who sought anonymity.
The official said before the political parties submit the names of candidates to the IEBC on January 11, 2022, the handshake team would have hammered a deal on how to approach the high-stakes contest.
The IEBC has seven days from Monday- the day when parties submitted names of aspirants in the parties primaries-to gazette the names of the contestants.
The IEBC will receive nomination papers from candidates cleared by political parties on January 18 and 19 ahead of the by-election on February 18.
