Rivalry between Kajiado women leaders puts Jubilee on the spot

Kajiado East MP Peris Tobiko (in red attire) celebrates with her supporters at the High Court after a petition challenging her election was dismissed. Ms Tobiko was on May this year given the nomination certificate as the winner in the Jubilee nomination for Kajiado East. FILE PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Ms Tobiko is not yet out of the woods as Ms Seneta has lodged yet another petition at the party’s appeals tribunal.
  • It is instructive that the two women were aligned to different camps during the nomination campaigns.

The rivalry between Kajiado East MP Peris Tobiko and her challenger Kajiado Woman Rep Mary Seneta, has left many Jubilee supporters in Kajiado East weary and confused.

They now fear that this apparent lack of co-ordination will leave the eventual Jubilee Party candidate severely hamstrung to mount any credible challenge to the National Super Alliance candidate.

Ever since the Jubilee Party nominations were held in April 25, the two aspirants have spent substantial amounts of money, ferrying supporters to Jubilee House to pressure the secretariat to issue them with a nomination certificate.

NOMINATION WINNER
On the evening of May 24, Ms Tobiko was given the certificate at Jubilee House, where she had ferried supporters in four minibuses from Kitengela.

She had been distraught that despite nomination results giving her a clear lead over Ms Seneta, the party was yet to issue her with a certificate.

Ms Seneta and her supporters had gone to the party headquarters that morning in search of the same.

This is the second time Ms Tobiko is being issued with a certificate.

PARTIES TRIBUNAL

In the first instance, she got the certificate after an appeal by Ms Seneta at the JP Appeals Tribunal was thrown out.

The certificate was later invalidated after Ms Seneta moved to the Political Parties Tribunal, which ruled that nominations be repeated in two polling stations in Kitengela.

She had cited irregularities, including voter bribery and tampering of voting materials, which she said had been perpetrated by Ms Tobiko.

In the initial nominations Ms Tobiko got 9,243 against her rival’s 5,742.

REPEAT EXERCISE

It was going to be a tall order for Ms Seneta to overturn a deficit of 3,501 votes with only two polling stations; she had prayed that the repeat exercise be done in the whole constituency.

When results for the two polling stations were announced on the evening of May 19, Ms Seneta had beaten Ms Tobiko, polling 1,224 votes against 950.

The difference of 274 votes fell well below what was required for her to surpass Ms Tobiko’s initial tally.

These results, however, buoyed Ms Seneta, who now said that they were a reflection of how she would have fared had there been no irregularities in the first nomination exercise.

POLITICAL CAMPS

Though she has the certificate, Ms Tobiko is not yet out of the woods as Ms Seneta has lodged yet another petition at the party’s appeals tribunal citing fresh evidence of voter manipulation.

It is instructive that the two women were aligned to different camps during the nomination campaigns.

Ms Seneta was in former Interior Cabinet secretary, Joseph ole Lenku’s camp while Ms Tobiko was in Taraiya le Kores’ camp.

The two men were seeking the party ticket to face incumbent David Nkedianye of ODM in Kajiado’s gubernatorial elections.