Jubilee party candidate in the recently held Kiambaa polls, Kariri Njama has disputed claims that he received threats in order to desert the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and become the candidate for the ruling party.
The allegations had been brought forth by Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua during a Citizen TV interview on Tuesday, July 20, whereby he claimed that Njama did not leave UDA of his own accord.
"When Koinange passed on, UDA prepared him (Njama) to be our candidate. In fact, we did a poll and he was at 92 percent.
"When Jubilee realised he was the man to beat, he was called, intimidated, threatened, and forced to join Jubilee. He came, explained to us his predicament and we allowed him to go," Gachagua stated.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Njama refuted the claims noting that Gachagua is entitled to his opinion.
"His statement does not hold water for anyone to say that I was threatened. We're in a democratic country and he's entitled to his claim.
"You cannot say you're the candidate of any party until you yourself have categorically stated which party you're going to be in," Njama affirmed.
Further, Gachagua had alleged that UDA's candidate, John Njuguna secured the Kiambaa victory due to the influence of the party's wave in the Mt Kenya region.
He pointed out that the polls were a reflection of what would take place in the 2022 General elections.
Kiambaa by-elections, held on Thursday, July 15, saw Njuguna clinch victory with 21,773 votes against Njama's 21,263 votes.
This led to the Jubilee party citing irregularities and demanding the votes to be recounted.
"We are happy to take the flack and responsibility where we have fallen short of expectations… We think we gave it our best shot and I think we actually won that is the message that you are getting from this group,” Jubilee vice-chair David Murathe stated.
