Caption: Jubilee Party (JP)’s chief campaigner in Ukambani and former Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile addressing the press in Machakos Town yesterday. (Phot: Tom Waita/hivisasa.com)
Jubilee Party (JP)’s chief campaigner in Ukambani and former Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile Thursday said the coalition will support former Land Minister Charity Ngilu’s quest for Kitui governor’s seat in the oncoming polls.
Addressing the press after a Jubilee strategy meeting in Machakos Town, Mr Ndile said JP will not field a gubernatorial candidate in Kitui but will back Ngilu “for she worked with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration in the past and is still in Jubilee.”
“We will campaign for her as she braces to face Senator David Musila who eying the seat as well as the incumbent Julius Malombe who has declared his re-election bid,” he vowed.
The declaration came as Ms Ngilu was reportedly in a confidential meeting with Wiper Party leader and NASA co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka in Nairobi to seek his support in her quest for the county’s top seat.
The Narc Party leader is evidently leaning on the Opposition coalition owing to her recent announcement that she would support Mr Musyoka’s presidential ambitions in the impending elections.
She expressed her regrets for fighting the former vice-president in the past, terming it a terrible mistake which split the Kamba community along political lines besides costing it the opportunity to form the country’s top leadership.
Last month, Ngilu announced that her party is yet to decide whether to join forces with Jubilee or the National Super Alliance and hinted that Narc might choose to go it alone in the August 8 General Election.
She has been constantly tearing at President Kenyatta’s government, from which she was unceremoniously kicked out of the Land’s docket over graft allegations, for what she terms as maladministration.
“Expecting Ngilu to work with Jubilee again is farfetched given that she felt betrayed by the regime after risking rejection from her own people as she campaigned for Uhuruto in the 2013 elections,” observes Morris Kimuli, a political pundit in Kitui.
He says the decision also cost the former Kitui Central MP the Senate seat which she lost to David Musila.
“She was then rewarded with a Cabinet position but was later ‘dumped’ over corruption claims in her office and that has too not gone down well with her. She will, therefore, most likely turn down Ndile’s offer,” added Mr Kimuli.