PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta had given the JAP election team a last chance to deliver the Oloolua Ward and Kabete constituency seats in the May 4 by-elections or face the sack.
After losing Kajiado Central to ODM in the March 16 by-election, Kenyatta is said to have told JAP officials to either deliver Kabete and Oloolua or ship out.
JAP’s vice chairman David Murathe told the Star yesterday that his team had never had a moment of peace with the President since they lost Kajiado Central to ODM.
“The President was really very angry with us – and even refused to listen to our explanation. We attempted to tell him there were moles in our midst during the Kajiado Central by-election campaigns, but he would not listen to that,” said Murathe.
Former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu became the first JAP legislator after he won the Kabete parliamentary seat by more than 20,000 votes.
In the Oloolua MCA by-election, JAP’s Antony Kimemia garnered 2,870 votes against ODM’s Abdirahman Awadh’s 1,269.
Murathe told the Star that, unlike in the Kajiado Central by-election, where JAP election co-coordinators were given money for the campaign, prior to the Kabete and Oloolua by-elections, the candidates were financed directly.
“We decided the candidates deal with us directly at our Pentagon Office in Nairobi to avoid the mistakes that we later discovered from the Kajiado Central by-election,” said Murathe.
Murathe said he briefed the President after receiving the results and Uhuru was upbeat about the party posting encouraging results.
“We talked at midnight for close to 30 minutes and he was happy we made it this time round. He told me he is happy and we are all happy too,” Murathe told the Star yesterday.
Murathe said the team worked under intense pressure from Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto to ensure JAP made it.
He said the party is now determined it will proceed to the 2017 polls with vigour, adding it will open up branches at the grassroots countrywide.
“We want it to be felt all over, including all opposition zones, because it is a national party meant to unite the people of Kenya. We will revamp it ahead of the 2017 election and make it popular and a saleable part.
“By all indications, we had predicted a win in Kajiado Central but there were many forces working against us, including the IEBC and one or two people in our midst. We know of one who used to make calls at night from a hotel in Kajiado while during the day he appeared to be supporting us,” claimed Murathe without elaborating.
– the-star.co.ke
