Thursday, April 9, 2015 IEBC clears Ferdinand Waititu, 9 others to run in Kabete poll

By ERIC WAINAINA
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Kabete by-election candidate Ferdinand Waititu prepares to address Juja Town residents on March 29, 2015. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission on April 7 and 8 cleared him and nine others to run for the Kabete parliamentary seat. PHOTO | FILE |  NATION MEDIA GROUP.

In Summary

• Among the candidates is former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu of President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Alliance Party.
• The candidates have been crisscrossing the constituency, selling their manifesto to the electorate.
• The seat fell vacant following the shooting dead of George Muchai on February 7 in Nairobi’s Central Business District.

The electoral commission has cleared 10 candidates to contest in the Kabete by-election slated for May 4.

Constituency Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission coordinator Esther Wanjiku on Thursday said the commission cleared the last candidate on Wednesday evening.

Among the candidates is former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu of President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP) and human rights activist John Wamagata who will contest on the Safina party ticket.

The Safina party is associated with lawyer Paul Muite, who also hails from the constituency.

HAS BEEN CLEARED

Mr Kavore Kariuki has been cleared to run on Martha Karua’s Narc-Kenya, while Mr Kiriro wa Ngugi will contest on the Democratic Party ticket.

Others are Mr Isaiah Ndirangu (Democratic Unity); Mr Newton Njenga (National Vision Party); Mr George Mungai (independent); Mr Paul Kariuki (People’s Party of Kenya); Mr Moses Wachaga (independent); and Mr Wilson Karanja (ODM).

The seat fell vacant following the shooting dead of George Muchai on February 7 in Nairobi’s city centre.

The candidates have been crisscrossing the constituency, selling their ideas to the electorate.

WAITITU CONFIDENT

Mr Waititu said he was confident of winning the seat.

“I was nominated with 14,000 votes while my closest challenger had 2,000 votes. This means that the people of Kabete have accepted me as their MP. My track record as the Embakasi MP speaks for itself,” he said.

But his challengers have been asking voters not to vote for a political party but for individual leaders, based on their ability to develop the area.

“We should not elect leaders based on (the) political dominance of an individual or a political party because its through such thoughts that we end up getting bad leaders,” Mr Kiriro said.

Mr Wamagata said if elected, he would go against the grain of Kiambu County politics and push for policies that would benefit the people.

ONE PARTY COUNTY

“Kiambu is a one-party county and this has been very costly for the people because all MPs dance to the same tune. If elected, I will not be on the government or the opposition side but I will stand for what is good for the people,” he said.

The candidates have promised to complete all the CDF projects that were started by Mr Muchai and initiate new ones.

Mr Mungai, a university lecture, said education, water, health and youth empowerment would be among his top priorities if he joins the National Assembly.