Embakasi North Jubilee Candidate Wangoro Fighting ODM Aspirant Jane Muringi Out of The Ballot
The Embakasi North Jubilee Party candidate Harrison Wangoro is fighting the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) aspirant Jane Muringi not to be on the ballot.
Wangoro is worried about the threat posed by Muringi more than the incumbent Embakasi North Member of Parliament (MP) James Gakuya.
As other candidates are busy on the ground campaigning for the seat, Wangoro is wasting a lot of time and resources busy fighting Muringi and not even their main rival Gakuya of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
After failing to get endorsement from the ODM leadership in Embakasi North to have the candidature of Muringi revoked under the Azimio la Umoja zoning he went to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to stop her name being printed on the ballot.
Unfortunately, for Wangoro the case was thrown out by the IEBC for lacking merit and he has resorted to involve the ODM top leadership to assist him stop Muringi ahead of the second Azimio Council meeting to be chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday, June 24th, 2022.
The Embakasi North ODM delegates and executive committee has dismissed Wangoro saying that they are confident that Muringi is a strong candidate in delivering the seat for Azimio as she is enjoying popular support at the grassroots.
“In fact it’s Gakuya who should instead be removed from the ballot as he is not popular among the majority Azimio supporters in Embaksi North. If we were to write a recommendation letter that’s the one we would recommend,” the ODM Embakasi North officials said in response to Wangoro’s proposal.
Wangoro had tried to persuade the ODM leadership at the constituency to write a letter endorsing him as the sole Azimio candidate and withdrawing Muringi’s candidature but they have refused.
After the ODM Embakasi North delegates and executive committee rejected the moves by Wangoro he decided to take the case to IEBC on baseless grounds which were dismissed by the electoral body.
The Jubilee Party knows that Wangoro is a weak candidate and has not been very much involved in fighting Muringi out of the ballot forcing Wangoro to change tactic by involving the ODM party top leadership to take action.
Wangoro is allegedly in talks with ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna and the party’s Nairobi branch chairman George Aladwa to use their influence in the party to advise president Uhuru and Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga to withdraw her name as a candidate in his favour ahead of the meeting to be chaired by the president.
The Embakasi North party leadership supporters are furious with some of the party leadership saying that they should concentrate in campaigning for their seats that they are contesting and leave that matter to the ODM leadership and members of Embakasi North to decide.
Sifuna is eyeing the Nairobi senatorial post while Aladwa is defending the Makadara parliamentary seat.
Aware of what Wangoro is trying to do, ODM supporters on the ground are on red alert ahead of the Azimio Council meeting.
There’s a lot of tension and hostility in Embakasi North as her supporters insist that Muringi should be on the ballot and will not allow to be imposed a candidate on them.
They say that if Wangoro feels that he is popular then he should face all the other candidates on the ballot and if not then he should instead remove himself from the polls and leave it to the others who are confident instead of trying to sneak in through the backdoor.
“If the ODM and Azimio makes that mistake of removing Muringi, let the leadership know that Azimio will lose the seat as majority of the Azimio supporters will only vote for Raila Odinga and the other Azimio candidates in Nairobi but not Wangoro,” said Muringi’s supporters.
They argue Embakasi North is not the only constituency that has both Jubilee and ODM candidates. Others are Mathare Makadara and Embakasi East and therefore saying this is not a unique situation.
