Is Ngilu a victim of witch-hunt within Jubilee?

Charity Ngilu    PHOTO:COURTESY

By STANDARD TEAM

Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Kaluki Ngilu is seen as a ‘political traitor’ at home by going against her political bedrock’s voting pattern.

Her Ukamabani backyard voted almost to a man for Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Democratic Party and Cord’s Raila Odinga while she was supporting Jubilee and Uhuru Kenyatta.

Many commentators consider Ngilu to be a witty politician and a survivor par-excellence.

Over the last two decades, she has moved from the Social Democratic Party, to Narc where she was fondly referred to as Mama Rainbow and along the way, jumped from coalition to coalition.

But at the end of the day, the die cast by Charity Ngilu or the gamble she takes has kept landing her in government.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Why Azimio dropped case against Wetang'ula over Sabina Chege's Jubilee position
• 
  Ngilu, County to pay businessman Sh25m for burnt lorry
• 
  Season III of presidential tours destined for Mount Kenya, with goons in tow
• 
  On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launches holy Jubilee year

The former Kitui Central MP is a politician who has not shied away from political controversies since she joined politics 21 years ago. Having won the parliamentary seat on a DP ticket in what was a Kanu zone in 1992, Ngilu has since been in fiery politics, characterised by jostling between her and Kalonzo.

Seen as an abrasive politician, Ngilu who lost the senatorial seat to David Musila in the March 4 General Election and has been steadily losing her political clout in Ukambani.

 In the just concluded by-elections in the region, Jubilee coalition to which she is a ‘point person’ in the region, performed dismally in the Makueni senatorial race, Kibwezi West and Matungulu constituencies, which could have weakened her value in the coalition she joined at the eleventh hour.

 To the Jubilee-led government, the presence of Ngilu in the government adds no value and she is in the political arena as an opportunist and a politician ready to betray at the earliest opportunity, according to a jubilee MP from Mt Kenya region who  asked not to be named.

Political wind

 “The Lands Cabinet Secretary is an opportunist who knows how to time political wind. However, nobody can bank on her allegiance. She joined the coalition when she realised there was no much opportunity for her in Cord,” said the MP. He said she was even lucky that she had landed such a plum job in a coalition she had joined as a last resort. What gave a pointer of the falling out between the former Kitui Central MP and the Jubilee-led government is the support that Majority Leader and Garissa town MP Adan Duale gave to the successful endorsement of the Lands Committee report.

It will be remembered that ODM and by extension Cord see her as a political betrayer after she ditched the coalition at the last minute.

 During the last day of depositing of the pre-election agreements by political parties, the ‘iron lady’ of Ukambani politics joined the podium to celebrate the formation of Cord at Kenyatta International Conference Centre KICC) only for her to pull out a day later.

And the first to point out the onslaught against Ngilu as ‘dirty political schemes ‘ is none other than the person who succeeded her in Kitui Central constituency as area MP, Makali Mulu.

“I read the mood in Parliament and did not bother to contribute as Ngilu was being roasted. The Speaker seemed to have a fixed mind to have the report adopted and you could read the body language as Duale and others went on digging in,” Mulu told The Standard on Sunday.

MPs from Ukambani have meanwhile come to the rescue of the embattled Lands Cabinet Secretary.

The MPs, during the launch of the Machakos City, petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to pardon Ngilu over the ‘gross misconduct’ allegations levelled against her by Parliament.

“Human is to error. If Ngilu erroneously made a decision that did not please many, she should be forgiven and allowed to perform her duties. No one is an angel,” said Mavoko MP Patrick Makau.

“Mavoko residents and all Kenyans would like to be issued with title deeds. We should allow her to perform her duties and stop petty politics,” Makau said.

Masinga MP Itwiku Mbai besieged the President to ensure Ngilu is protected from the MPs who are baying for her blood, saying the Cabinet Secretary is being hounded for her firm decision to clean the Lands ministry dogged by corruption.

—By Jacob Ngetich, Stephen Makabila and Onesmus Nzioka