Cord and Jubilee in a do-or-die hunt for Makueni flagbearers

The late Makueni senator conferring with his daughter, Kethi Kilonzi, together with Hon. Ababu Namwamba at the Supreme Court during CORD's election petition.   NATION MEDIA GROUP

By BOB ODALO

In Summary

• It follows that there are those within the Cord leadership who feel that Ms Kilonzo would likely reap a political benefit from that court appearance coupled with the sympathy votes she is likely to get following her father’s death.

A fierce battle is taking shape with 42 days to go before voters in Makueni County go back to the ballot box for the second time in four months to elect a new senator.

The seat fell vacant following the death of Mr Mutula Kilonzo on April 27.

The task of choosing the candidates for both the Jubilee and Cord alliances before the Wednesday deadline was not an easy one.

The Jubilee coalition has already approached three senior politicians from Makueni – former Kibwezi MP Philip Kaloki, former assistant minister Gideon Ndambuki and a former Makueni MP, Mr Peter Kiilu – to run on a Narc ticket which is a coalition member.

Whoever the coalition settles on will likely fight it out with lawyer Kethi Kilonzo, a daughter of the late Makueni senator, who has been approached by both former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka of the Cord coalition to be the flagbearer.

Ms Kilonzo rose to popularity during the Supreme Court petition filed to challenge President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win where she was representing Africog, a non-governmental organisation.

It follows that there are those within the Cord leadership who feel that Ms Kilonzo would likely reap a political benefit from that court appearance coupled with the sympathy votes she is likely to get following her father’s death.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had given parties a deadline of last Wednesday to identify their nominees for the July 22 contest.

However, the parties have not officially anounced their preferred candidates.

The political circumstances ahead of the by-election are significantly different from the way things were in the run-up to the March 4 elections.

By then, the two main coalitions were fighting for numbers to succeed former President Kibaki. But today, Jubilee is in power.

Wiper was the party of choice in Ukambani in the March 4 elections, winning all the three senate seats in the region – Machakos (Johnstone Muthama), Makueni (Mutula Kilonzo) and Kitui (David Musila).

But the Cord coalition led by Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka is now the minority in both the Senate and the National Assembly. And Wiper must work extra hard to retain the seat if the events of the past week are anything to go by.

Soon after the burial of Senator Kilonzo in Mbooni on May 9, Wiper identified Ms Kilonzo as the best suited candidate to succeed her father.

But by June 5, the deadline given by the IEBC for parties to identify their candidates, she had not declared her interest.

A former Kenya National Union of Teachers national treasurer, Mr Benson Kithuku, was the only person who had paid the Sh150,000 nomination fees. This worried the Wiper leadership and their Cord coalition partners.

“What followed was a last- minute top-level search for Ms Kilonzo to salvage the situation,” says a close aide of Mr Musyoka’s.

Mr Musyoka personally went for Ms Kilonzo in the company of party chairman David Musila