Kavindu win gives Kalonzo more bargaining power ahead of 2022

The new Machakos Senator-elect Agnes Kavindu and Transport CAS Wavinya Ndeti at Machakos Academy, Machakos. [John Muia, Standard]

Wiper candidate Agnes Kavindu yesterday won the Machakos senatorial seat in a by-election marked by family rivalry and succession politics.

The Machakos senatorial by-election had been billed as a do-or-die contest whose results will make significant political statements ahead of the 2022 General Election.

Ms Kavindu garnered 104,352 votes while Arbanus Ngengele of Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party got 19,726 votes.

The mini poll was a proxy battle between former Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka who was defending his political turf with a hope of increased stake in an emerging alliance.

Yesterday Kavindu thanked Kalonzo, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Machakos residents for support they showed her and the Wiper party.

Kavindu said her former husband Muthama should be respected.

“The fact that I’ve been elected senator doesn’t mean I’m in any competition with him,” she said.

Rally church

She said she knows Kalonzo will deliver the presidency come 2022 and will campaign for him with all her strength and rally the church behind him.

Though there were eight candidates vying for the seat that fell vacant after the death of Senator Boniface Kabaka, the duel for the seat had been reduced to a two-horse race between Kavindu and Ngengele.

On Tuesday, former Cabinet Minister Mutua Katuku dropped from the race with the statement from the party leader and Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua claiming that they had been prevailed to do so by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Dr Mutua said his party’s candidate bowed out of the race as part of a unity bid agreed with Uhuru and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga.

“There was a political pact with the president and Raila, we did not do it for Wiper. We are with the two leaders in the same team of those supporting Building Bridges Initiative (BBI),” said Mutua.

But although the governor called it a strategic move, it is believed that his rivalry with Kalonzo could not allow him to support Kavindu after Katuku’s withdrawal.

National Assembly Deputy Minority Whip and Kathiani MP Robert Mbui accused Dr Mutua of engineering the withdrawal of Katuku as a scheme by Machakos governor to aid the UDA candidate and complicate matters for Wiper.

“We knew his schemes but were confident our candidate was strong and trounced her competitors with a big margin,” said Mbui.

He said the Wiper party was a strong party in the Lower Eastern and would not be shaken.

Kangundo MP Fabian Muli said the low turnout in the by-election was because people realised that the poll was just a fight between two political forces and nothing about the people.

Kavindu’s win is likely to politically hurt the former Machakos senator who chairs Ruto’s party and is seeking to make inroads in the country and could easily slow down the uptake of UDA in the lower Eastern.

But for Kalonzo the stakes were high.

A victory for his candidate helped him to wrest the seat his party lost in 2017 to Chama Cha Uzalendo, and has buttressed the argument that he is undisputed leader of the Lower Eastern region. It will bolster his stature in the emerging coalition and help him in the national politics bargaining table.

The former vice-president now has a better bargaining power among his allies Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi, Baringo Senator Gideon Moi (Kanu) and Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula (Ford-Kenya) in the emerging alliance.

The other candidates in the by election were Kioko Kitheka of Grand Dreams Development Party, university don John Musingi of Makueni Governor Prof Kivuta Kibwana’s Muungano Party and independent candidate Gilbert Maluki.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) decried the low voter turnout in the Machakos senate by-election on Thursday.

The county has a total of 1,335 polling stations spread across the eight constituencies. Registered voters are 622,965, according to IEBC data.

Yesterday, Katuku congratulated Kavindu for the victory and pledged to work with her.

“I wish her well and I pledge to support her in her duties as the third senator of Machakos,” said Katuku.

He said he will fight another day for the same seat or a higher one.