Big battle for Machakos seat

Four supporters of Deputy President William Ruto will battle it out in the March 18 Machakos senatorial contest amid widening rifts among his allies after the selection of Mr Urbanus Muthama Ngengele as the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate.

Similar disgruntlement has rocked Wiper party after it settled on Ms Agnes Kavindu, the estranged wife of former Machakos senator Johnson Muthama, as its candidate.

The nascent party associated with Dr Ruto picked Mr Ngengele after an opinion poll it had commissioned identified the insurance underwriter as the most popular aspirant. But most of those the opinion poll showed as underdogs dismissed the results.

University of Nairobi don John Musingi and his Kenyatta University counterpart Rita Ndunge openly faulted the study.

"The survey did not even capture the names of all the aspirants. It was faulty and, therefore, could not truthfully reflect on the situation on the ground," a disgruntled Ms Ndunge told the Saturday Nation.

A devastated Prof Musingi and Mr Joseph Mathuki vowed to run against Mr Ngengele. The Saturday Nation has learned that Prof Musingi was heading to Muungano Party while Mr Mathuki will vie as an independent candidate.

Defection

Mr Muthama, who is the UDA interim chairman, however, played down the cracks which started manifesting way before the opinion poll, sending Lily Nduku Mwanzia, a diehard Dr Ruto supporter, into the hands of Chama Cha Uzalendo (CCU). She cited high-handedness in UDA for her defection.

Other candidates are a former director of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Simeon Kitheka and Stanley Masai Muindi, the grandson of firebrand colonial era politician Muindi Mbingu.

Mr Kitheka and Mr Masai are debuting in elective politics. Mr Kitheka is backed by Kangundo MP Fabian Kyule. Ms Nduku is riding on the women's agenda and eyes to inherit the late senator Kabaka's clout in the region.

“We strongly believe it is time Machakos produced a woman senator. Whether the woman is Ms Kavindu or Ms Nduku, we do not mind. However, our candidate stands out in many dimensions,” CCU secretary-general Philippe Sadjah told the Saturday Nation.

Ms Kavindu’s candidature brings an interesting twist to the Machakos contest. She is still embroiled in a court battle with her ex-husband Mr Muthama in which she is demanding an equal share of matrimonial properties. Therefore, Wiper set the stage for a nasty public confrontation between the divorced couple by picking Ms Kavindu who was a member of the defunct Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce.

In court, Ms Kavindu had accused Mr Muthama of mistreatment — including disconnecting electricity and water to the palatial house, something that forced her to resort to using swimming pool water. “This is a true hustler with a superb digestive system because she took swimming pool water and did not fall ill,” Mavoko MP Patrick Makau said on Wednesday when Wiper unveiled the 64-year-old cleric, betraying Wiper’s determination to tap the messy 1983 divorce.

Although he denied it, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka appears keen to use the bad blood between the couple to settle scores over his own fall-out with the former senator a year ago, which saw him team up with DP Ruto.

The Saturday Nation has learnt that Wiper is planning to deploy multiple campaign teams. Part of the messaging will be to extol the promise of the anticipated BBI constitutional changes. But the campaign organisers have cautioned Ms Kavindu against revisiting her marital woes on the campaign trail to maintain a pious image. The real task is reserved for teams consisting of firebrand politicians such as Mr Makau and former Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile.

The attackers are supposed to rub salt into the Muthama’s marital wounds by sensationally revisiting the circumstances leading to and the tribulations occasioned by the divorce that spawned an epic court battle.

Evoke sympathy

Although analysts warn that the tactic may backfire on Ms Kavindu, the revisiting of the marital woes is designed to evoke sympathy for the woman while at the same time portray the man in a bad light. According to highly placed sources involved in the selection of Ms Kavindu, the tactic is also intended to provoke the UDA team to play into the hands of the Wiper team by losing focus and attacking Ms Kavindu, an abomination by local standards.

"Mr Muthama should not fall into the trap laid by Wiper. He should not react to their provocation. It is devastating that Wiper is using this contest to wreck families. They should facilitate the couple to reconcile," Mua MCA Francis Ngunga told journalists on Wednesday as he reacted to Wiper's choice of candidate. The vocal MCA is among a handful of Wiper politicians in the county who have openly defied the party boss as far as the forthcoming Senate by-election is concerned. The critics feel that top party honchos imposed a candidate on them.

"Ms Kavindu has been handpicked the same way (Transport CAS) Wavinya Ndeti was handpicked in 2017 to contest the Machakos governorship. This is undemocratic," Mr Ngunga added. Ms Kavindu bagged 95,315 votes in 2017 when she vied the Machakos County Woman representative post on a Jubilee party ticket.  Former Water minister Mutua Katuku, the Maendeleo Chap Chap Party candidate.

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