I’m the best Jubilee candidate for Nairobi, says Kenneth

Maina Kamanda, Peter Kenneth take their campaign to Wakulima Market

What you need to know:

  • Kenneth promised to build new markets “with bathrooms” as well as ensure accountability in the use of market fees.
  • The Sonko team has accused Mr Kenneth of playing the favouritism tag.
  • The “Team Nairobi” is expected to name its flag bearer this month.

Former presidential candidate Peter Kenneth has insisted that he is the best among Jubilee Party aspirants seeking to replace Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero in the August elections.

Mr Kenneth, who is facing bitter opposition from a rival Jubilee Party brigade in Nairobi, said he has a proven track record and the ability to produce results.

“When you compare all of us in Jubilee, there is a whole lot of difference. I am the man for the job,” Mr Kenneth told his supporters at Wakulima Market Tuesday.

He promised to build new markets “with bathrooms” as well as ensure accountability in the use of market fees.

He spoke two days after a football match he had attended on Sunday which was organised by Dagoretti South parliamentary aspirant John Kiarie was marred by chaos after it was disrupted by rowdy youths.

This was after Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko and Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru stormed the venue, leading to altercations that later forced their bodyguards to fire in the air.

GENTLEMAN

On Tuesday, Mr Kenneth, who has painted a picture of a gentleman in politics, described the incident and a series of other altercations, as “Jubilee’s internal democracy.”

“What you saw the other day is part of Jubilee’s internal democracy.

“But we have said that those that want to use insults and chaos, we will leave them. It is you, the people, that will decide,” Mr Kenneth, also known as PK, told the market traders.

He was accompanied by MPs Maina Kamanda (Starehe) and Yusuf Hassan (Kamukunji).

“Nairobi is not a place to joke with. It wants a person [who] knows how to plan stuff. And the only person to remove Dr Kidero is Peter Kenneth,” Mr Kamanda said.

BRILLIANT GOVERNOR

He argued that Mr Kenneth had proven himself and that he (Kamanda) was proud to be associated with him.

“The people of Nairobi need to decide on a brilliant governor [who] can develop the city. That man is PK,” Mr Hassan said.

Mr Sonko, Mr Waweru, Nominated MP Johnson Sakaja, and former Starehe MP Margaret Wanjiru - all eyeing the governor’s seat - have dubbed themselves “Team Nairobi” and see Mr Kenneth as an annoying gate crasher to their party.

The team has accused Mr Kenneth of playing the favouritism tag, saying he is not only late to the campaign, but is an outsider to the city politics.

Mr Kenneth was a two-time MP for Gatanga Constituency in Murang’a County, but has since insisted that he was born and bred in Nairobi, where he wants to be governor.

“If you look at all of us, I am more Nairobi than all of them,” he was quoted saying in the past.

The “Team Nairobi” is expected to name its flag bearer this month, after two months of intense negotiations.