46 listed for UDA nominations to county assembly

A wheelbarrow at UDA party headquarters in Nairobi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

The UDA has forwarded names of 46 people for nomination slots that will come up at the Nakuru County Assembly after the August 9 General Election.

Business persons, known allies and campaigners of politicians seeking various elective seats in the county on UDA ticket are among the beneficiaries.

Up to 38 persons have been listed under the gender top-up list. Eight others have been nominated for the special interest groups, with marginalised, minority, youth and persons living with disabilities sharing two slots each.

UDA and Jubilee are the most popular parties in the county, each seeking to clinch a majority of the 55 elective seats.

Alfred Mutai, who sits in the Speaker’s panel and is vying for Kuresoi North MP seat, said: “There is no doubt that UDA has an upper hand in the county. We will clinch most seats in parliamentary and ward seats. This will secure us more nomination slots.”

He said a majority of the incumbent MCAs and MPs were defending their seats on UDA ticket. “This shows that the party is the most popular in Nakuru. Many will be reelected. Our opponents should ready themselves to be the minorities,” he said.

Peter Palang’a, the current Minority Leader, and defending his Olkaria Ward seat on ODM, is confident that parties under the Azimio coalition will control the majority. “Jubilee, ODM and Ubuntu will have the majority this time with an estimated 50 percent of the elective seats. UDA will have 40 percent and a possible ten percent will go to independents,” said Palang’a.

The current Nakuru County Assembly has 78 members, 23 of them nominated by Jubilee and ODM parties. Up to 51 of the 55 elected members are men. The remaining four are Cecilia Nyambura (Visoi), Irene Chebichi (Soin), Mary Wanjiru (Subukia) and Jane Wangui (Gilgil).

Parties nominated women to nearly all the slots for gender top-up. Jubilee nominated 17 while ODM got two.

The parties also nominated two women and two men to represent minority communities and the youth. “The number of nominated ward reps in the county is likely to drop. More women are vying and have high chances of clinching target seats,” said Palang’a.

Failure to nominate a person living with disability to the county assembly has often attracted criticism, but the leadership has gotten away with it in the last five years.