Kwale Women Rep Zainab Chidzuga at a past event. Photo/ the-star.co.ke
An aspirant for the position of Kwale women representative has denied claims that President Uhuru Kenyatta promised her a lucrative State job to step down for women representative Zainab Chidzuga who is defending her seat.Fatuma Tabwara, said she voluntarily stepped down from Jubilee Party to run for the seat on a different party ticket.Her stepping down now means nominations for Jubilee Party's Kwale women representative position will not be conducted.The party has officially handed Chidzuga a direct nomination to defend her seat in August.This comes even after the party assured Kenyans that no party member will be given a direct nomination certificate until April 21 when the party conducts its primaries.Chidzuga had been expected to contest against Tabwara who is the former County Public Service Board vice chairperson.Tabwara left JP and joined Party for Development and Reforms, a Jubilee Party affiliate. She said she bolted out of JP primary elections race after JP's top leadership convinced her to consider another option.“It is not true that I was offered job or money to surrender the position to Chidzuga,” she told journalists.“The direct nomination ticket Chidzuga got is not a guarantee of winning the August 8 polls,” she said.Chidguza is among Coast politicians who were elected on an ODM ticket in 2013 but left the party in 2016 and joined Uhuru's Jubilee.Other leaders from Coast who have since left ODM include Governors Salim Mvurya (Kwale) and Hussein Dado (Tana River) and MPs Khatib Mwashetani (Lunga Lunga), Gideon Mungaro (Kilifi North) and Masoud Mwahima (Likoni).