Three United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party aspirants from Saboti Ward in Trans Nzoia County now want Deputy President William Ruto’s aide Farouk Kibet to keep off party primaries in the ward.
Lucas Naibei, Leonard Moss and Steve Matui said Kibet and Endebes MP Robert Pukose had allegedly planned to give a direct ticket to an unpopular aspirant.
"The people you are seeing here including four others that are not here are in utter shock after realizing that there are forces out to jeopardize plans of the party conducting credible, free and fair polls,’’ Naibei said.
"We have been crisscrossing the ward and by extension the whole constituency for the past three years trying to sell our agenda and the Deputy President’s. We have invested more than 15 million in this cause which is being put in jeopardy by some ruthless cartels," he added.
The three aspirants gave the party an ultimatum to have the nominations conducted transparently devoid of undercut deals by brokers out to frustrate those yearning for change.
Naibei told the DP to personally take charge of the process to have legitimate leadership put in place.
"We want to request our party leader, Deputy President William Ruto to take personal responsibility and have a verifiable exercise,’’ he said.
Naibei said failure by the DP to intervene in the matter may lead to the party losing all the ward seats in Saboti.
The aspirants further claimed the Endebess legislator was meddling in the affairs of Saboti constituency where he had planted his cronies.
They accused Pokose of meddling in the primaries and asked him to stay put in his home constituency of Endebess.
Matui asked the UDA National elections Board Chairman Anthony Mwaura to send leaders from outside the region to oversee the exercise.
"The National Elections Board Chairman Anthony Mwaura and the Party leader should dispatch leaders with unquestionable party loyalty to come and conduct primaries here in Saboti. Our good brother Robert Pukose should be told not to interfere in the process, Saboti is not an electoral ward in Endebes,’’ Matui said.
UDA nominations started off on the wrong footing in parts of the country with claims of pre-marked ballot papers, ugly confrontations and rigging allegations dominating the exercise in some polling stations.
There were also reports of long delays after voting materials failed to get to polling stations on time, forcing the National Elections Board to call off primaries in some areas.
Nonetheless, the DP gave the exercise a clean bill of health saying all went well despite the reported cases of disruptions and delays.
"Voting in the 36 counties proceeding smoothly after the minor logistical challenges were dealt with. Congratulations to all our 5000 aspirants for being patient and peaceful," Ruto said in a tweet on Thursday.
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