President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election bid is under serious threat from a section of leaders from Deputy President William Ruto's backyard who ordered him to stop supporting Independent candidates or they decamp and join the Opposition National Super Alliance (NASA).
The leaders led by Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago accused some individuals within the Jubilee party of supporting and funding campaigns of independent candidates contesting against them.
Mandago while addressing residents at Eldoret town demanded that the party’s top leadership draw a clear line between supporting them or entertaining independent candidates.
“We will ask our supporters to vote for other presidential candidates if the Jubilee’s dalliance with independents does not end. It is illogical to support independent candidates that say they support the re-election of President Kenyatta and Ruto.
“We will ask our supporters to vote for us and make individual decisions on other seats. It is not a must for us to be in government," he stated.
Kapseret legislator Oscar Sudi mentioned that independents should quit and come back to Jubilee or be handled as competitors and Opposition sympathisers.
“We will not be taught how to elect our leaders and on August 8 we will keenly assess the voting patterns. The moment we will realise the electorate is voting for our competitors, we will ask our supporters to vote against those eyeing the top seats in our party,” Sudi stated.
Nandi Hills Member of Parliament Alfred Keter on his part alleged that Mandago's opponent in the Uasin Gishu Gubernatorial contest Zedekiah Bundotich aka Buzeki was being funded by 'powerful individuals in the party' to oust the incumbent in the August elections.
“Supporting Buzeki is working against Mandago who should have settled down by now and campaigning for the re-election of our President. If this trend remains, it will also not be mandatory for us to vote for this regime,” Keter stated.
Jubilee nominee for the Uasin Gishu Woman Rep seat Gladys Shollei supported the sentiments of the other leaders stating that the party should stop campaigning for non-members.
“Individuals who were not independents from the beginning and only defected after losing the primaries should be treated as outsiders,” she stated.
The demand by the leaders comes in the middle of a presidential tour of the Rift Valley region where the president intends to solidify his ground ahead of the elections.
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