THE Jubilee Alliance Party has claimed the Orange Democratic Movement used unorthodox and questionable methods to narrowly win the Kajiado by-election.
In a JAP meeting at Ole Sereni on Thursday evening, members were told that ODM MCAs from Nairobi ferried around 3,000 people to vote in the mini-poll on Monday.
Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko produced photos of individuals who he claimed were voters in Nairobi but were casting votes in the hotly contested Kajiado Central poll. ODM’s margin of victory was only 500 votes.
The individuals are said to have changed their voting areas between the time the seat fell vacant and the week before the polls.
Sonko, who was among JAP’s main campaigners in Kajiado Central, said he has forwarded the photos, including names and phone numbers of the individuals, to CID director Ndegwa Muhoro.
The Thursday meeting was attended by JAP’s candidate in the Kajiado Central by-election Patrick Tutui, who was directed to challenge the loss in court.
But ODM, through its director of communication Philip Etale, dismissed the claims and materials as propaganda. He accused Jubilee of bribery in the mini-poll.
Etale said JAP should confront the IEBC if there were “any foreigners who voted, how and who allowed them.”
They should specify the polling station in which the transported individuals voted, he said.
“This is clearly a cheap way of Jubilee trying to discredit ODM/Cord’s victory in Kajiado Central. Voters belong to the IEBC and not political parties. They are listed as per the polling station where they registered. It is naive of Sonko and Jubilee to desperately look for excuses to try and cleanse their misdeeds in Kajiado, which include voter bribery,” Etale said.
Tutui lost the mini-poll to ODM’s Elijah Memusi by only 500 votes in an election in which 80 percent of registered voters turned out.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has demanded answers over the loss of his new party in its first political outing. He is expected to meet the JAP, TNA and URP leadership over the failure, as well as Deputy President William Ruto.
Trouble in Kajiado Central first hit the ruling coalition after the nominations when Memusi defected to ODM.
Memusi, who was the favourite, lost to Tutui by 400 votes and decamped, citing unfair nominations by Jubilee.
JAP is supposed to see the dissolution of Uhuru’s TNA and Ruto’s URP and other affiliate parties in the Jubilee Coalition ahead of the 2017 elections.
-the-star.co.ke
