By Daniel Kituku
Over 300 aspirants vying for various elective posts from Makueni County have merged to ensure the county gets the right gubernatorial and county assembly leadership to steer development Makueni regardless of party affiliation.
Led by Professor Kivutha Kibwana who is eying the Makueni gubernatorial seat, the aspirants expressed fear that good leaders might be locked out of the race during the forthcoming General elections as a result of lack of parties’ proper guidelines and transparency during primaries.The aspirants who had converged at a Hotel in Emali town resolved to form a home grown inter-party coalition with the aim of ensuring development in the county.
‘’ County government is a serious business and I call upon all the leaders regardless of their party affiliations to forge a union with a purpose of achieving progress’’ added Kibwana.
The former president’s adviser on coalition matters said Makueni County can only prosper if the electorate elects leaders with good record of governance during the coming general elections.
The Independent party leader [Tip] Kalembe Ndile who was among the aspirants, lauded the coalition idea saying unity was the most important thing for it to prosper.He said a good strategic plan was needed for the coalition to stand and achieve the desired goals.
The former assistant minister for tourism doubted the possibility of the Wiper Democratic Movement leader Kalonzo Musyoka becoming the next president of this country basing his argument on the recent presidential polls released by Ipsos Synovate The polls indicated that if elections were held today the Prime Minister Raila Odinga would emerge top with 36% votes, followed by the Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta with 30% votes. Kalonzo was ranked them with a mere 5% of total votes.
He however advised the Kamba Community leader to form coalitions with the most preferred president candidate to ensure that the community is not locked out the coming next government.‘As a community that wants to be part of the next government, we cannot ignore the recent presidential polls, lets advise our leaders to form a coalition with the most preferred presidential candidate for us to remain relevant in politics,’’ he said.
The political leaders unanimously declared to rally behind Prof. Kibwana’s in his bid to capture the Makueni governor’s seat. ‘’Kibwana is best suited for the seat compared to other contestants and we today resolve to fully support him,’’ they said amid ululations.
‘’We are going to hold roadshows all over the County to popularise Prof. Kibwana and tell the people of Makueni the leadership in him’’ said the former Makueni County council Mr. Bernard Musau.The Makindu ward councilor warned the two Kamba presidential hopefuls, Kalonzo and Charity Ngilu against interfering with the area politics saying they will not allow them to impose leaders on the people.
He said the area learnt a bitter lesson during the 2007 general elections where Kalonzo imposed inactive leaders to the people of Makueni who have since done nothing in terms of development.
‘’We warn the two leaders against imposing people to the electorate, we will not accept such a move because this time round we are electing leaders not parties,’’ he said. He expressed disappointment on the WDM Mps elected saying they slept on the job.
The forum drew participants from Orange Democratc party (ODM), Narck- Kenya, United Republican Party (URP), United Democratic Front (UDF), Democratic Party (DP) Muungano party among other.
However the WDM aspirants did not attend the forum.
