“Will you force these people while you are in an office in Nairobi swivelling on a chair?” Mandago posed.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 21 – Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago has insisted that aspirants in the region will not take part in the Jubilee Party primaries despite the declaration by the party headquarters.
Mandago was speaking when he addressed a huge rally in Eldoret town earlier Friday afternoon where he stated that the delay in the process was evidence that no proper preparations had been undertaken.
“I want to plead with Raphael Tuju. You must not sit in the office and say ‘It is a must.’ There is nothing here which is fixed. If you say it is a must and then us on our part we say it is a must the nominations will not continue, what will you do?” he posed.
“Will you force these people while you are in an office in Nairobi swivelling on a chair? I want to tell you, please do not behave in such a way that we begin to doubt whether you are in Jubilee or in NASA,” he said.
He further emphasised that all their hard work in campaigns will not be affected by a few technical hitches.
“We have done our campaigns well in an organised manner. So I want to ask those in charge of the party to stop letting us down. Uasin Gishu is a Jubilee stronghold and it does not look good that this is the place where the exercise is this disorganised,” he indicated.
His sentiments were echoed by his rival, businessman Kiprotich Bundotich aka Buzeki who is also seeking the Jubilee party ticket.
“I think for it to continue at this particular time, it may pose logistical constraints to voters which may make it difficult for them to exercise their democratic right in an environment which is conducive,” he said.
“As soon as they get enough ballot papers for us to continue, I think it would be responsible to say that the voting should go on from tomorrow morning or latest the day after.”
In the meantime, Kirinyaga Governor Joseph Ndathi stated that the ongoing Jubilee party primaries risk losing credibility if the time for voting is not extended after delays were experienced in various polling stations.
Ndathi explained that many supporters will be locked out if no action is taken and indicated that this would not be fair.
He suggested that the party secretariat should take time to organise its affairs first before resuming the process.
“We are always taught in nursery school that darkness belongs to Satan so it is not very clear what might happen in the night with these elections. At the end of the day we had been promised that the elections will be free and fair,” he said. “So in an environment like this, if Ndathi was to lose this kind of an election, why should I consent to that kind of a loss?”
He stated that in the prevailing conditions, he will have no reason not concede if defeated, as the process was marred by irregularities.
“If we are saying that this elections starts at 1pm and by 5pm we are told to pack (up), then they will not be free and fair. I had personally asked Raphael Tuju that if they are not ready today, this is not the end of the world. It should be postponed even to Monday next week.”
The Jubilee Party Secretary General had said that the nominations will proceed as scheduled, despite protests by some of the aspirants who want them postponed to next week when sufficient materials will have been delivered.
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