Wiper party eventually lost the Kitui gubernatorial seat to
Charity Ngilu of NARC, a scenario witnessed in many other contests.
The last five weeks have been nightmarish for Wiper leader
Kalonzo Musyoka. He has seen his party stripped to the bare bones after losing
key seats during the August 8 general election, followed by the resignation of
top officials.
But his woes are not about to end, or so it seems. With
upset former party officials on the loose, Kalonzo has nowhere to hide as the
dark secrets on how he engineered his own party’s downfall start to hit the
airwaves.
Former Wiper Secretary General Hassan Omar, who resigned from
the position on Monday, has now confirmed that former Wiper Chairman David
Musila was indeed rigged out of the Kitui gubernatorial race in favour of
Kalonzo’s preferred candidate, the highly unpopular former governor Julius
Malombe.
Speaking on JKL Live on Wednesday, Hassan revealed that his
efforts to convince Kalonzo that Musila was the stronger candidate and restore
his victory were futile.
The scenario eventually saw Wiper lose the crucial seat to
Charity Ngilu of Narc after Musila, who resigned from the party and vied as an
independent candidate, split votes with Malombe.
“I think he (Kalonzo) is a politician and he took his
gamble. It did not pay off and Wiper is as a result fairly decimated. I believe
Musila would have been a stronger candidate than Malombe. I worked hard to
ensure that the results of Musila’s victory were restored by the national
elections board, but I was thwarted,” stated Hassan.
Musila has since decamped and is currently campaigning for
President Uhuru Kenyatta in Ukambani.
Hassan cited this as one of the many cases where Kalonzo’s
strong arm tactics prevailed; but eventually cost Wiper dearly.
“I tried very much. In fact there is a clip you played where
I had the NASA cap; that day I invited Muthama back, probably we would have had
the senator of Machakos back. Parties sometimes must also accommodate the
diversity and allow some intraparty diversity. And where there is a stronger
candidate, you must allow the stronger candidate to prevail,” he said.
Muthama ditched Wiper after accusing Kalonzo of
micro-managing the party nominations, including appearing to impose Wavinya
Ndeti as the Machakos gubernatorial candidate.
Wavinya eventually lost to Alfred Mutua in the race for
Ukambani region’s most prestigious seat, with Wiper also losing the Machakos
Senatorial seat to CCU’s Boniface Kabaka.
