• The ruling Jubilee party began the exercise on Monday and will run until Thursday, April 22.
• UDA's National Elections Board (NEB) chairman Anthony Mwaura said the nomination for all the wards, constituencies and counties will be held on the same day.
Image: PSCU
The moment of truth for political aspirants in UDA and Jubilee has come as the parties start conducting their nominations this week.
The ruling Jubilee party began the exercise on Monday and will run until Thursday, April 22.
The party settled on picking its flag bearers for various wards through consensus.
The Party's Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni stated earlier that the party is encouraging aspirants to embrace consensus to avoid the drama associated with nominations.
He, however, stated that the party will issue direct tickets to aspirants who will be seeking to vie for various seats unopposed at a later date.
Jubilee Party mentioned that it will be open to zoning within the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Alliance so as to ensure the coalition party wins majority of the seats.
On indirect nomination, Kioni stressed that the party will not issue tickets based on popularity of a candidate, but will employ other parameters.
On the other hand, Deputy President William Ruto-led United Democratic Alliance (UDA) will hold its primaries on Thursday, April 14.
According to UDA's National Elections Board (NEB) chairman Anthony Mwaura, the nomination for all the wards, constituencies and counties will be held on the same day.
The party said there will be no direct tickets for contestants save for areas where there is a single aspirant.
Aspirants for Governor, Senator and Woman Representative have direct tickets.
On Saturday, DP Ruto announced that UDA will field Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja as its candidate for the gubernatorial seat.
This is after Bishop Margaret Wanjiru withdrew her bid in favour of Sakaja to run for the city's senatorial seat.
Nominated Senator Millicent Omanga will get the Woman Representative ticket.
Currently, 25 Nairobi MCA hopefuls are eyeing the UDA tickets ahead of the nominations after defecting from Jubilee last month .
They include six nominated MCAs; Joyce Muthoni, Susan Makungu, Millicent jagero, Ann Thumbi, Leah Ntimama, Silvyia Museiya and Margaret Mbote.
Among the MCAs are Peter Wahinya (Pangani), Antony Kiragu (Waithaka), Mark Mugambi (Umoja), Waithera chege m(South B), Chege Mwaura (Ngara), Patrick Musili (Hospital), Maina Njoka (Karibangi North), Elijah Mbuthia (Njiru) and Pius Mbono representing Zimmerman ward.
Others are Antony Ngaruiya (Kasarani), Mwaura Samora (Clay city), Charles Thuo (Dandora Three), Geoffrey Nganga (Mwiki), Paul Ndung’u (Pumwani), James Kiriba (Riruta), Fredrick Njogu (Kawangware) and Kawangware MCA Fredrick Njogu .
On the Jubilee side, the party is yet to announce who among the hopefuls will get direct tickets for the top county positions.
The party's prominent aspirants are Nairobi Governor Ann Kananu businesswoman Agnes Kagure and Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) Richard Ngatia who are all gunning for the gubernatorial seat.
Speculation is however rife that there is a 'surprise' Jubilee candidate for the Nairobi top seat.
Jubilee Senatorial aspirants include nominated MP Maina Kamanda and Woman Representative aspirant Wangui B Ng’ang’a .
Nairobi Jubilee MCAs also vowed to defend their seats following the rebranding of the party in February.
The MCAs are optimistic they will retain their seats and even garner more under Azimio la Umoja.
Nairobi has 17 constituencies and 85 wards.
In the 2019 Population and Housing Census, the city had 4,397,073 million residents.
According to IEBC, registered number of voters in Nairobi increased to 2,251,929 in the 2017 election from 1,732,288 in 2013.
ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga garnered 828,826 votes while Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta got 791,291 votes.
Jubilee bagged nine constituencies, ODM got seven while Wiper got one.
Nairobi has 122 MCAs, with the ruling party having 65 elected and nominated.