Kibra poll: Jubilee aspirant protests Mariga's nomination

An aspirant in the Kibra mini poll on Tuesday petitioned the Jubilee party over the selection of football star McDonald Mariga as its candidate citing that it was done in secrecy and contrary to party rules.

Mr Morris Peter Kinyanjui, who was among the 16 aspirants interviewed by Jubilee’s National Elections Board (NEB) as a possible flag bearer of the party for the November 7 by-election, said Mr Mariga’s selection was “not only unfair, deceptive and shrouded in secrecy but also contrary to the provisions of the Jubilee Party constitution.

DEMOCRATIC METHODS

In his petition to Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju that was received on September 3, Mr Kinyanjui stated that Article 11 of the party's constitution provides for "open, free, fair and transparent nomination in national and county elections through consensus, secret ballot or through the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)".

He said the Article further states that “other democratic methods acceptable to members under the supervision of the NEB and the County Elections Board can also be acceptable.

But in the case of Mr Mariga’s selection, Mr Kinyanjui said: “Not only was there no nominations conducted, the board “arrogated upon itself powers it does not have to conduct the aforesaid selection, and even then they did not feel it right to inform the aspirants.”

Mr Kinyanjui claimed that he learnt of Mariga's nomination through the media adding that it depicted “a sad reminder of the dark Kanu days.”

“To make matters worse, the said selected person is neither a resident nor a voter of Kibra Constituency and there are serious doubts whether or not he has ever voted.”

The constitution however, allows anybody, registered as a voter to contest for MP seat even in the Constituency he was not registered as a voter.

Jubilee NEB chairman Andrew Musangi however, defended the party’s choice of Mr Mariga as its candidate noting that he emerged the best among other 15 contestants.

“The process we used of interviewing aspirants is not new in the party. It has been used before and even before we interviewed the 16 aspirants on Monday, all of them agreed and even signed to accept the results,” said Mr Musangi.

He pointed out that all disgruntled members were free to lodge their complaints bit insisted the process was free, fair, transparent and constitutional.

“The winner was selected based on the cumulative results each member of the board awarded. The party is at liberty to interview aspirants as its constitution allows it,” added Mr Musangi.

There were also claims that Mr Mariga was only registered less than three Weeks ago and that his name was not yet among the gazetted Kibra voters by IEBC.

On Tuesday, IEBC spokesperson said he would not comment on the matter until a formal complaint is lodged.

But Mr Musangi maintained that Mr Mariga was a duly registered voter.