Nairobi — The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission on Monday cleared Patrick Tutui Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP) and Orange Democratic Movement candidate Memusi Kanchory to vie in the March 17 Kajiado Central by-election.
Aspirants in the by-election had February 16 and 17 to present their party nomination papers to the IEBC in an exercise conducted at the Maasai Technical Institute.
CORD Principals Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula who escorted the ODM candidate also presented a formal complaint to the IEBC where they accused JAP of flouting the Election Act regarding use of State resources in election campaigns.
Both teams conducted brief meet-the-people tours with CORD leaders addressing a rally at the KCB Grounds in Kajiado while the JAP team led by House Majority Leader Aden Duale took their candidate’s popularisation drive to Namanga.
Duale expressed confidence that Tutui will be the first candidate to be elected to Parliament on a JAP ticket.
The month-long official campaign period is set to kick off on Wednesday to March 14 which is two days before the poll which was occasioned by the resignation of Joseph Nkaissery to take up the Interior Cabinet Secretary’s post.
Memusi secured the Orange party nomination after he garnered over 9,000 votes in the primaries.
He had earlier that week ditched TNA after losing out in the primaries to Patrick Tutui
Memusi will battle it out with Tutui in a contest that holds political significance to both President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga as they start laying their arsenal for the next General Election.
The CORD leader who will be trying to make a comeback in Maasai politics goes into the race hot on the heels of a morale-boosting victory in Homa Bay where ODM easily retained its Senate seat after the victory of candidate Moses Kajwang’ firmly cemented Odinga’s dominance in Nyanza.
President Kenyatta wants to use the by-election to test the waters for his new outfit JAP, while Odinga wants a victory to give a boost to his planned political re-branding after three failed attempts at the presidency.
Nkaissery and the Kajiado County Governor David Nkedianye are the only representatives elected on an ODM ticket in the region.
ODM is going into the campaigns with one aim to recapture the seat or as the party Secretary-General Ababu Namwamba puts it: #ReclaimKajiado.
