Marsabit governor Ukur Yattani ditches Raila’s ODM, backs Uhuru
What you need to know:
- The party however is not in the list of political parties that submitted nomination rules to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries commission (IEBC).
- The governor said his party met with the president at State House to inform him about the new development and offer their support for his re-election.
Marsabit County governor Ukur Yattani has ditched Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
Speaking to the Daily Nation on Tuesday, Mr Ukur said that he had joined Frontier Alliance Party (FAP) which he said was a national party drawing leaders from the North Eastern, Central, Rift Valley and the coast region.
The party however is not in the list of political parties that submitted nomination rules to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries commission (IEBC).
IEBC had set March 2 as the deadline for submission of party nomination rules.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said new parties and those that had changed their rules had to deposit the rules, failure they will not field candidates in the August 8 General Election.
“The law says that these rules must be submitted before March 2 and if a party does not have them, they cannot hold a nomination as per the law,” said Mr Chebukati on March 8.
But the governor insisted that his party had been registered and complied with IEBC regulations.
He also noted that FAP is not part of the Jubilee Party but would support the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“Our region has always had the urge to form a vehicle that would represent them nationally and finally through the support of various Marsabit County leaders we have managed to form FAP which I will be leading,” said Mr Yattani.
The governor said his party met with the president at State House to inform him about the new development and offer their support for his re-election.
“We will sign a memorandum of understanding with President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday, to formalise our relationship. Today we only made known to him the existence of the new party and entered an understanding of cooperation with JP,” added the governor.
In the recent past, the governor had said that he was having dialogues with the president and his deputy to join JP.
“We did not want to join the Jubilee Party but we support the re-election of the president. However, there are other aspirants who will go for the primaries to seek the JP ticket. I will use FAP to seek my seat,” he said.
He will be the party leader and his deputy will be Joseph Lekuton while the secretary general will be the Chachu Ganya.
