- Narc party leader Ngilu lost to UDA a key plank, Julius Muinde Mutukaa, who in the last election lost his bid for Kitui senatorial seat on the party ticket.
- Kitui UDA coordinator said the defections are not only beneficial in terms of strengthening UDA, but also help to cement unity among the Kamba people.
Image: MUSEMBI NZENGU
There is reason for Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka to be worried as President William Ruto raids his Kitui backyard to draw defectors from parties in Azimio-Oka political formation.
Apparently, Ruto's top henchmen in Kitui are in an overdrive to net as many of the influential politicians in the Raila Odinga and Kalonzo-led Azimio alliance.
Determined to draw as much political blood from the alliance as possible, Ruto's UDA last Friday received defectors from Narc, ODM, Jubilee Party and other Azimio-affiliated outfits.
Although none of the Friday defectors came from Kalonzo's Wiper party, what should get him really worried are the remarks from the Kitui county UDA coordinator, Moses Banda, in the wake of the defections.
"The defections of leaders in Kitui to UDA will continue as that was just the beginning. In the next one month, we shall be receiving another batch of defectors from Wiper,"Banda said in a statement he shared with the media on Sunday.
He added that a serious mop up of the Wiper defectors would begin once Kitui Governor Julius Malombe of the Kalonzo-led party finalises the constitution of his government.
According to Banda, it was expected and with some degree of certainty that a fallout would ensue following disgruntlement from Wiper supporters who will feel shortchanged for being left out of Malombe’s administration.
The last Friday defections were an overt tell-tale sign that Ruto's UDA is making inroads into Kitui.
As expected, since Ruto won the last August 9 election and formed the government, many Azimio-Oka politicians in Kitui and other Ukambani areas have been gravitating towards UDA.
And last Friday, Narc party leader Charity Ngilu lost to UDA a key plank, Julius Muinde Mutukaa, who in the last election lost his bid for Kitui senatorial seat on the party ticket.
Ann Mutisya, who unsuccessfully sought the Kitui woman representative seat seat on Narc in the August polls, also decamped to UDA.
The Ngilu-led party also lost to UDA its unsuccessful candidate for the Mwingi West parliamentary seat, Koki Musau, as well as the immediate Nzambani MCA Ruth Kyene .
The ceremony at a Kitui town hotel where the defectors were received by Banda and UDA politician Stephen Kilonzo also saw ODM’s Mumo Kingi who lost his bid for the Kitui South MP seat decamp to UDA.
Kalunda Ndile, who was previously the Jubilee Party nominated MCA at the Kitui county assembly, also ditched the party for UDA alongside a number of other personalities from across various parties who lost their bids for ward representative seats.
"The motivation to defect to UDA is premised on the realisation that being the ruling party, its better organised. It has a better and superior agenda for the people of Kenya," Banda said.
He added that for those seeking job opportunities and are qualified, they stood the best chance of landing jobs in Ruto's government but only if they belonged to the President's political outfit.
Banda said the defections are not only beneficial in terms of strengthening UDA as a party, but also help to cement unity among the people of Kitui and the Kamba community at large.
He said by coming together under UDA, the community will have a forum to lobby for abundance of development programmes and projects across the entire Kitui county.
"With a larger team of local leaders in UDA, we shall embark on mass membership recruitment of our people.
"We will undertake civic education for our people on the importance of electing leaders based on agenda, manifesto and programmes as opposed to the retrogressive politics of ethnic capture and kingpinship that has consigned our people into poverty and out of government," the UDA coordinator said.
(edited by Amol Awuor)