COUNTY POLITICS: Kalonzo’s headache as top allies face off for Kitui gubernatorial race

Geography, corruption, national politics and performance of the current administration are the key factors expected to determine the next Governor of Kitui County.

The gubernatorial contest in Kitui will be a closely-watched one for several reasons.

One is that it is the home county of Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, who is aspiring to be the National Super Alliance (Nasa) presidential flagbearer.

Whether Mr Musyoka clinches the Nasa ticket or the running mate, the presidential contest will have a significant bearing on the county politics because the former Vice President retains huge influence in the region.

Besides, it will be an all Nasa affair because Jubilee party is yet to field a candidate.

The three aspirants eyeing the position including incumbent Julius Malombe, Senator David Musila and former cabinet secretary Charity Ngilu. All belong to the Opposition coalition.

NEW-FOUND UNITY

Having managed to rally behind him erstwhile critics like Mrs Ngilu and Makueni governor Kivutha Kibwana, it will be a delicate balancing act for Mr Musyoka to maintain the new-found unity and still uphold his party’s political dominance in the region by winning seats.

Governor Malombe and Senator Musila, political allies-turned-rivals are expected to square it off for the Wiper party ticket on April 24 while Mrs Ngilu will vie on her Narc party.

Locally, Mrs Ngilu’s political dalliance with Mr Musyoka is seen as a clever scheme by the Narc leader to benefit from the Kalonzo brand by putting her on the same non-confrontational level with Wiper candidates.

As much as the three candidates have sparred on most issues including corruption, county policies on water and infrastructure, health, jobs creation and slow implementation of projects, they now more or less belong to the same house.

At the moment, none claims to have a more political advantage than the other by associating with Mr Musyoka.

EQUAL FOOTING

Mrs Ngilu says the three candidates should be left alone to compete on equal footing.

Except for the incumbent, who joined elective politics in 2013, both Mrs Ngilu and Mr Musila pride themselves as having wide political experience, immense resources and an extensive network of supporters across the county.

Dr Malombe retired from civil service in 2004, as acting director of Housing and his first term in office has been characterised by bitter fall-outs with Mr Musila and all the Wiper MPs who were instrumental in his 2013 election win.

His opponents accuse him of failing to contain runaway corruption, which has seen the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) arrest key officials and stop payments of questionable contracts after numerous raids.

The EACC is investigating wide-ranging procurement irregularities and has stopped payments of 89 road and water contracts worth Sh1.3 billion after carting away heaps of documents in two pickup trucks.

RECENTLY ARRESTED

Dr Malombe’s Chief of Staff Kiema Kimoli and his deputy Fredrick Kimanga were recently arrested and locked up by EACC detectives while several senior officials have recorded statements for allegedly awarding themselves the contracts.

Corruption is a big agenda in this year’s election because, in 2013, Dr Malombe ran on a platform of zero tolerance to corruption and often touted himself as incorruptible.

“We are holding him to account for his own words and the promises he gave to voters. The buck stops with him because every corruption scandal has happened under his watch” said Aggrey Nzomo, the county youth chairman.

With months to the August elections, the EACC graft investigations have given his political opponents fresh political ammunition and created another wedge with the business community affected by payments delay.

The governor also faces serious allegations of presiding over intra-marginalisation, where certain areas have been favoured while others were given raw deal in the employment of county staff and distribution of projects.

ADDRESS KEY ISSUES

Mr Musila claims the majority of senior county officials including chief officers and directors hail from Dr Malombe’s Kitui Central constituency at the expense of other sub-counties, which got junior and subordinate jobs.

Senator Musila and Mrs Ngilu accuse the governor of failing to address the county’s water scarcity problem despite having billions of devolved funds at his disposal and both promise to do things differently.

“With a budget of Sh1.5 billion, the county government can sink and equip a borehole in every village at an average cost of Sh5 million each, and this can be achieved in one year,” Mrs Ngilu says.

However, the governor denies these allegations citing the community level infrastructure development programme – an initiative similar to Constituency Development Fund, where each of the 40 wards gets an equal average share of Sh7 million every year.

Dr Malombe says he has set up a grand road-map that would transform the county into vibrant rural and urban economies and that residents have begun to see results of his agenda.

He says enhanced access to water, electricity, better roads, bustling trade and better education standards had improved the quality of people’s lives and were the measure of the great strides the county has made under his leadership.

EARNED RECOGNITION

“We’ve stirred up trade in rural areas by investing Sh354 million in rural electrification, we’ve lit up 832 public primary schools, and earned recognition as the most connected county in Kenya” he adds.

He dismisses his opponents as ‘people with nothing new to offer other than greed for power’ having been in leadership for decades.

In terms of geography and voting patterns, Kitui has eight constituencies with almost equal vote numbers but divided into three distinct sub-regions of Kitui, Mutomo and Mwingi.

Dr Malombe and Mrs Ngilu hail from the same Changwithya West Ward in Kitui Central Constituency while Mr Musila comes from Mwingi West.

If the 2013 voting patterns are anything to go by, Kitui South and Kitui East constituencies may provide the swing vote in the August 8 election, with Kitui Rural and Kitui West being the battlegrounds for the three candidates.

Mrs Ngilu will be keenly watching the Wiper nominations with the hope Senator Musila, who defeated her in 2013, will be edged out by Dr Malombe.

MAJORITY VOTES

In the August face-off, if Mr Musila manages to garner majority votes in the three constituencies of Mwingi Central, Mwingi North and Mwingi West, which have more than a third of the votes, he will have a head start over his competitors.

As the two prepare for next week’s do or die primaries, a decision by Wiper party National Executive Council to cancel the use of party cards in the forthcoming nominations in its Ukambani stronghold has rattled some candidates.

It was a major blow for candidates who had invested heavily in party recruitment drive hoping the more numbers they enrol the better their chances of winning the nominations.

Through his elaborate network of county government staff, the governor had enlisted members using 40,000 cards against his main opponent Senator David Musila who had distributed only 10,000 party cards.

Dr Malombe protested the NEC decision but the party insisted that Ukambani being its stronghold, every voter must be allowed to determine who gets Wiper tickets and therefore people will only use their ID cards to vote.

ORCHESTRATE OUSTER

The Malombe camp sees this as a calculated plan by MPs, who dominate the Wiper NEC, to orchestrate his ouster from the party and “unfairly give the ticket to Mr Musila”.

Earlier, Dr Malombe questioned the rationale of subjecting an incumbent governor to party primaries, suggesting the exercise be conducted by a neutral arbiter like the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), and even offered to foot the expenses.

The governor is aware that seeking Wiper nomination against Mr Musila, who is party’s national chairman, is the biggest challenge he faces.

Talk has been rife that he may run on a Nasa affiliate party ticket or as an independent candidate if he loses the Wiper ticket.

All Kitui Wiper MPs who are rooting for Mr Musila, except Mwingi West’s Bernard Kitungi, do not have opponents within the party and will, therefore, have free time campaigning for the senator.

SENATORIAL ASPIRANTS

They include Francis Nyenze (Kitui West), Charles Nyamai (Kitui Rural), Makali Mulu (Kitui Central) and Mutua Muluvi (Kitui East).

The senator also enjoys the support of most parliamentary and senatorial aspirants both from Wiper and other parties including Jubilee MPs Joe Mutambu (Mwingi Central), John Munuve (Mwingi North) and Rachel Nyamai (Kitui South).

Dr Malombe’s deputy Penina Malonza and aspirants Enoch Wambua (Senate), Jane Kibati and Irene Kasalu (Woman Reps) and dozens of MCAs back Mr Musila.

However, the governor insists that he’s ready to face Mr Musila in party primaries and warns it may not be an easy task to wrestle the ticket from him if the county administrative structures are anything to go by.

DRUM UP SUPPORT

For instance, in each of the 247 villages in the county, the governor has a village council of seven members, whose main job is to drum up support for him.

These teams report to the 40 ward development committees of five people.

This massive and elaborate network, if well-oiled can easily be used as effective campaign machinery capable of springing a major surprise against the governor’s rivals in both party primaries and main election.

Senator Musila garnered 156690 votes to beat Mrs Ngilu who came a strong second with 111447 votes while Governor Malombe got 163,904 votes against former Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo’s 85,723 votes.