“I will support Jaguar, but that doesn’t mean that I lost the nominations,” he said, “it is only that the nominations exercise was a sham”/MOSES MUOKI
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 4 – Starehe Member of Parliament Maina Kamanda on Thursday said he will support musician Charles ‘Jaguar’ Kanyi who defeated him in the Jubilee Party nominations.
The seasoned politician who lost the Jubilee ticket announced at a news conference that he will not vie as an independent candidate “because that will split votes in the constituency in favour of the Opposition candidates.”
“I have been very vocal that even those who lose in Jubilee nominations should not leave the party and you have quoted me on that. For that reason I am not prepared to leave the Jubilee Party,” said the MP
He however stressed that the nomination was not fair “because the party register was not used.”
Kamanda claimed the Jubilee Party’s Secretary General Raphael Tuju “was to blame for the sham exercise.”
“The person who won was Maina Kamanda, even if you look at the tallying,” he claimed and insisted that “I was declared winner by the Returning Officer but there are forces who think that the young people can attract more votes than the old. We need to be told if old people have space in the party” he said.
According to him, non-party members were allowed to take part in the exercise.
“Fifty per cent of those who voted in Nairobi were members of ODM. So it was like an ODM nomination,” he charged.
Kamanda had been declared winner in the nominations, but the verdict was overturned Wednesday by the party’s Appeals Tribunal which cited numerous irregularities after alterations in results sent from various polling stations.
The appeal was filed by Jaguar who was recently filmed shedding tears outside the party headquarters in Pangani.
Kamanda insists he is in politics to stay and is planning to take a vacation to the United States with his wife.
“It is a time to be with members of the family. Maybe in another two days, I will take this girl to America, we go there for about 10 days we relax because it has been a very tough exercise,” he said.
The former Sports and Culture Cabinet Minister during retired President Mwai Kibaki’s regime said he would take up any role offered to him if President Uhuru Kenyatta is re-elected in the August 8 polls.
Kamanda who has been involved in Nairobi politics for close to 40 years now said he looked to former city fathers Charles Rubia, Munyua Waiyaki, Maina Wanjigi as people who mentored him in politics.
The longest-serving of Nairobi leader rose from being from a councillor to a Member Parliament in Starehe after flooring former MPs Gerishon Kirima and Kiruhi Kimondo in the 1997 General Elections.
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