A political battle is shaping up in the Embakasi South parliamentary by-election between ODM and Wiper, stoked by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party.
Handshake, dishing of seats in NASA and the tribe factor have begun to take centre stage in a poll that could be a power-testing contest.
The immediate former MP Julius Mawathe (Wiper) and his predecessor, former Embakasi South MP Irshad Sumra, are locked up in a supremacy battle ahead of the by-election on April 5.
The Supreme Court nullified the election of Mr Mawathe as Embakasi South MP on December 21, last year, on grounds that there was no evidence to support the results that the IEBC used to declare him winner.
The entry of Kenyatta’s party adds to the intrigues in the supremacy battle. Last week, Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju announced that they would not be fielding a candidate in the by-election.
But it emerges that the contest between Mawathe and Sumra has higher stakes for Jubilee, with factions now pulling in different directions.
While Tuju, who claims that their move to surrender the seat ‘in the spirit’ of handshake with Raila could have got the brief from the party leader, a group of party politicians allied to Deputy President William Ruto have come out to declare support for Mawathe, setting the stage for a bruising contest.
Insiders insist that Jubilee’s decision to stay away from the by-election was in line with the President’s bid to endear himself further to his erstwhile political foe-turned buddy, Raila.
There is no love lost between the DP and Raila, and the Embakasi South seat now offers the DP an opportunity to test political waters in the city.
On Tuesday, Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria and a section of Central MPs declared support for Mawathe.Mr Kuria’s move was informed by the feeling that Raila had been unfairly handed a through-pass to boost his standing at the expense of Ruto in the political scheme of things.