Bahati: Sifuna will cost Raila the Mathare vote

A collage of Bahati and Edwin Sifuna

Kevin Kioko aka Bahati has warned ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna against meddling in the affairs of Mathare Constituency.

Speaking to Standard Entertainment on Wednesday, Bahati said Sifuna is doing everything to ensure he (Bahati) is not on the ballot and is ‘misleading’ the people of Mathare by telling them the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance has settled on Anthony Oluoch to fly the party’s flag.

The ‘Barua’ singer maintained that he is still in the race and constant pressure from Sifuna will only make the residents of his constituency turn their backs on Raila Odinga.

“Edwin Sifuna and Rachel Shebesh do not speak on behalf of the party. As far as I am concerned I was cleared by Jubilee Party.

“Anthony Oluoch is a very weak candidate. Akijaribu sana he will finish fifth or sixth. He has not helped the people of Mathare. Instead of fighting me he should go to the ground and find out what the people want,” said Bahati.

He added that Sifuna has never won an election and he might suffer the same fate this year if he is not careful.

“A number of women in Mathare are now ready to vote for Margaret Wanjiru in the Nairobi Senatorial race.

“Sifuna should focus on campaigning for himself because at this rate his utterances will cost Raila a significant number of votes,” he remarked.

On June 27, 2022, Sifuna shared a video where Jubilee Party Chairman (Nairobi) Gitonga Ndegwa announced that the coalition had decided to endorse Oluoch for the Mathare MP seat and asked Bahati to shelve his plans.

Sifuna then tweeted that he would deliver Bahati’s apology to Diana (Marua).

“Ahsante sana wana @JubileePartyK Nairobi for resolving the Mathare question for us. We now have a candidate...Hio kijana ya kulia lia nitachukua apology yake kwa Diana personally.”

According to senior officials in Odinga’s camp, the purpose of zoning is to ensure that they deny their opponents in Kenya Kwanza seats, and are determined to boost the winning chances of the coalition’s candidates by avoiding a split of votes where perceived ‘weak candidates’ are expected to step down in favour of stronger ones.

Raila Odinga [Denish Ochieng, Standard]