A section of Kiambu locals is raising eyebrows to why key politicians from the county were not selected to be part of the Jubilee Party campaign teams that was unveiled last week.
The campaign teams whose work will be to campaign for President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election and sale the party agenda to Kenyans ahead of 2017 polls did not feature key politicians who are known to be allies of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.
The campaign team instead has faces that many people especially Jubilee supporters did not expect, this is according to Peter Ngure, a Kiambu based analyst.
For instance, in Kiambu, not many people thought that Thika MP Alice Ng’ang’a will be selected to lead Uhuru’s campaigns in the area.
According to a section of Jubilee supporters in Kiambu town, they were expecting someone like Governor William Kabogo, Kabete MP Ferdinand Waititu, Kikuyu MP Kimani ichung’wa and Gatundu MP Moses Kuria who have been defending the Jubilee government from opposition criticism to be part of the campaign team.
“We expected to see vocal people being selected to lead Jubilee Party campaigns,” said Anne Gathoni, a resident in Kiambu town.
The move by the President Uhuru to settle on Alice Ng’ang’a to lead the Kiambu campaigns has already elicited reactions from a section of aspirants who are eyeing the Thika parliamentary seat.
Ngure, a political analyst says that there are reasons to why the President did not pick Kuria, Waititu or Kabogo to lead the campaigns in Kiambu.
The analyst says that Kabogo, Waititu, Kuria and Ichung’wa command a huge following and that one of them should have featured in the county campaign team.
He, however, observes that wrangles pitting Kabogo and Waititu might have prevented the President from picking one of them to lead his re-election campaigns.
On the other hand, the analyst observes that Moses Kuria might not have been selected because of his alleged involvement in controversial statements.
“Moses Kuria has been allegedly linked to incitement statements and that could have prevented the President to consider him in the campaign team,” said the analyst.
Ngure said that the national campaign team unveiled by the Jubilee Party is likely to cause divisions in the party as some people might feel left out.
Already there are jitters among Jubilee politicians and aspirants in regards to the campaign team.
In Kiambu, a section of aspirants eyeing various seats want the campaign team re-constituted.
Thika Parliamentary seat aspirant Patrick Wainaina says that the party should select no-aspirants to lead the campaigns.
He observes that those selected to lead the campaigns are seeking political seats and that they could the opportunity to drum up their own support.
Youth groups have also raised their reservations saying that they were left out of the campaign teams and want the party to engage them fully.
However, Thika MP Alice Ng’ang’a has assured that the campaign team is neutral. She asked aspirants eyeing seats not to panic saying that the team will be campaigning for the President and his deputy.
Ng’ang’a has declared interest to defend her seat and will be leading Jubilee Party campaigns in Kiambu county.