[President Uhuru Kenyatta during his recent tour to Kisii. A section of local leaders have accused Kenyatta’s handlers for allegedly preventing them from meeting the president]
Jubilee aspirants from Kisii County are crying foul over the recent presidential tour following their sidelining during the event.
At a meeting in a Kisii hotel, the aspirants alleged that the handlers of the president’s tours had deliberately left them out of the events.
“At no one time were we allowed to meet the president or address the residents he met along the route, reducing us to mere flower girls,” fumed Mr Alfred Nyangweso, a gubernatorial aspirant.
He accused party leaders in the region of discrimination during the trip, saying their actions were tantamount to stifling democracy in the region.
“Some party officials selfishly isolated the president from other party members in a bid to shield him from discovering their discriminative and undemocratic practices,” said Mr Nyangweso.
He cited the lack of chances for aspirants to address residents during the trip, saying it denied them a valuable opportunity to articulate the party’s policy.
“We were left feeling like outsiders in the party as only the president, his deputy and a few chosen politicians spoke. This was the height of discrimination as we were denied the chance to promote our candidacies and also demonstrate that JP maintains a strong presence in the county,” 2013 aspirant Mr Rashid Minyonga said.
Mr Minyonga, who was runner up Lumumba Nyaberi’s running mate in the 2013 polls, said he was going for the Bomachoge Chache parliamentary seat during the August polls.
His comments came in the wake of President Kenyatta’s Gusii tour which was marred by protocol hitches, poor organization, alleged infighting and supremacy battles between branch party leaders.
Separately, the aspirants called on the party leadership to allow manual processes to be used in the JP nominations scheduled to begin on April 13, 2017.
Kepha Mogaka, a Kisii Town politician and Nyaura Ward MCA aspirant, lamented that the lack of party smartcards would lock out a large number of supporters who were yet to obtain them.
“We are concerned about the lack of smartcards among candidates and party supporters. The few smartcards around have already been boiught by incumbenht MPs who intend to use them to safeguard their tickets and impose their candidates in the ward elections,” he claimed.
Responding to the aspirants, allegations, Kisii JP branch party secretary general Isaac Motari said the party was still in discussions to decide whether to revert to a fully manual system during the 2 week long nomination exercise.
“We are still in the process of making a decision on whether to go fully manual for the nominations since some members are yet to obtain the smart cards. However, the situation should not be a cause for undue worry for the candidates,” said Mr Motari.
He assured JP supporters that the party would hold free and fair nominations.