Kibwana claimed that his Muungano Party, alongside other Azimio affiliate parties, had agreed not to have zoning only for the former Prime Minister to adopt the controversial strategy.
The Makueni county boss noted that zoning – the new strategy adopted by the coalition party, would lock out small and emerging political parties from clinching elective seats thus undermining their representation in Parliament and county assemblies.
The governor, who shelved his presidential ambition to back the ODM party leader’s bid, warned the latter that regional zoning killed small parties in previous coalitions and that having a repeat of the same would undermine democracy.
“You promised the 22 emerging political parties that there would be no zoning of regional enclaves. We joined Azimio upon your word and in good faith. In both CORD and NASA the so-called small parties faired badly. Let us not guillotine democracy,” the outgoing governor reiterated.
The county boss, whose Muungano party endorsed the former Premier for the country’s top job on February 18, took issue with the strategy which would see constituent parties not field candidates in earmarked strongholds for other parties.
Azimio’s strategy will base the fielding of candidates in areas will be based on the outcome of the August 2017 general election. This would mean that other constituent parties will only be left with one or two seats to field candidates, which may be limited to Parliamentary and Members of County Assemblies (MCAs).
In Nairobi, for instance, Jubilee and ODM would equally share 16 of the 17 constituencies, with Embakasi South being exclusively left for the Wiper Democratic Movement – a seat that the incumbent MP Musili Mawathe intends to defend.
However, the wards would be shared between Odinga and his handshake partner, cum Jubilee party leader, President Uhuru Kenyatta. The former will get 43 seats while the ruling party will field candidates in 42 wards.
On May 4, the Azimio flagbearer defended the tactic, adding that it would guarantee that the coalition party gets the maximum number of seats in the next Parliament. He added that fielding multiple candidates would see a splitting of votes, giving way for opponents to clinch seats.
Kibwana becomes the second leader to poke holes into the new strategy. Though not verbally questioning Odinga, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka went ahead to field former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko to contest in the Mombasa gubernatorial race.
Jubilee and ODM have been calling for five-piece voting in their respective regions. Kieni MP Kanini Kega called for the Mount Kenya region to ensure that they vote in aspirants contesting under the ruling party to ensure they would be politically safe after August 9.
Kega, while making reference to the dynamic nature of Kenyan politics, noted that there could be a post-election handshake and that more numbers would hand the party bargaining power in the respective regions.
Source: KENYAGIST.COM