Jubilee aspirants to face off in joint poll

Jubilee alliance on Monday said over 8,000 aspirants seeking various seats on its tickets would be subjected to a joint nomination.

The announcement was made by the coalition’s flag bearer Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto.

The move is likely to spark fresh controversies in the new coalition still recovering from the fallout between Mr Kenyatta and United Democratic Forum leader Musalia Mudavadi.

But Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto, who spoke in a joint interview aired on Kameme FM and the K24 TV, said it was worthless to conduct separate nominations.

“We prefer joint nominations because that will increase our chances of winning many seats in the Senate, National Assembly and the County governments,” Mr Kenyatta said.

Losers in the joint nominations, Mr Kenyatta said, would be offered appointments in various arms of government.

His position was also immediately supported by Mr Ruto who asked candidates to accept the proposed joint nomination.

Not fear

“If you can’t win nominations you can’t win the main elections so people should not fear a joint process,” he said.

As Jubilee began to work on joint nominations, their Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) counterparts disagreed over similar plans. National coalition management board co-chairman Dalmas Otieno announced that each party would conduct its own nomination.

“Each party will conduct its own nominations,” he said.