bly: Joseph Mwangi

Political supremacy wars between current and former MPs allied to President Mwai Kibaki’s PNU in Nairobi has turned nasty ahead of the 2012 general elections.
According to sources well versed with PNU Nairobi politics, two camps have since emerged and the borne of contention is over control of the party programmes in the city and the party’s candidate for governor and senator in the forthcoming elections.

The behind-the-scene political war has now divided the party into two camps with even a third camp expected to emerge. One camp is led by former Starehe MP Maina Kamanda and the other one by Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu.
Nairobi. Former Starehe MP Betty Tett is also in the Kamanda camp.

Kamanda and former Makadara MP Dick Wathika are said to have been edged out by Public Health minister Beth Mugo and Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu. Inside sources divulged that Mugo and Waititu have been in different for a referring to Kamanda and Waititu as losers and spent political forces who have outlived their usefulness for PNU and by extension Nairobi politics.

The matter is now even threatening to spill over to State House. Sources say Kamanda who is president Kibaki’s trusted lieutenant has now vowed to take the war to Kibaki’s door-step at State House.

To further show how nasty the war is, even Deputy Prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta has also been dragged into the matter. Analysts say should the war continue, it will jeopardize Uhuru’s chances of controlling Nairobi politics as a presidential candidate.

Uhuru to begin with is a cousin to Mugo who is fighting Kamanda who is Kibaki’s trusted lieutenant. Although Uhuru has not publicly spoken on the matter, sources within PNU’s corridor of power has it that Uhuru and his allies from Mount Kenya region have vowed to distanced themselves from Waititu. Last week, there were reports that Waititu has been spotted at a meeting with Uhuru’s opponents and word spread like bushfire that he has decamped from Uhuru to a rival presidential candidate.

Kamanda on the other hand has no soft landing spot for Uhuru considering that he has been secretly supporting Mugo in their fight over control of Nairobi politics. During the Starehe by-election, Waititu and Mugo never stepped their foot in the constituency to campaign for Kamanda who eventually lost to Bishop Margaret Wanjiru.

In Makadara, the two also abandoned Wathika and just watched from a distance as he was being trounced by Mike Sonko of Narc-Kenya. Interestingly, Sonko who is allied to PNU and has soft spot for both Uhuru and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka has steered off the controversy. He is in the middle ground and has never linked himself to any of the warring camps. Sonko has never publicly declared his support for either Uhuru or Kalonzo but has been working closely with the two under the G7 alliance. At one time when he hosted both leaders for a fund raiser, he categorically stated that whoever is nominated as the G7 or PNU flag bearer will be assured of his support.

Back to the bitter wars, it has been blame games, mudslinging and revenge between the two camps. It was the Kamanda, Wathika axis who first played games of revenge during the Nairobi mayoral elections. The two who still wield a lot of power at City Hall successfully campaigned for ODM’s George Aladwa to beat PNU’s James Gakuya who had the support and blessings of Mugo and Waititu.

Sonko on the other hand though is not allied to any of the camps also campaigned and lobbied for Aladwa’s election. The two are known political buddies and Sonko according to sources was just reciprocating on the support Aladwa gave him during the Makadara by-elections. Aladwa also campaigned for Sonko despite that his party ODM had sponsored former MP Reuben Ndolo. Even attempts by Prime minister Raila Odinga to reconcile Aladwa and Ndolo fell on deaf ears as Aladwa went ahead to lobby his supporters to vote for Sonko.

This was the first mayoral elections in the city where ODM had won convincingly despite having the numerical strength before. Also, it was a first, as ten PNU councilors voted for the ODM candidate. Previously, PNU has been poaching from ODM.

Waititu on his part, blamed the PNU loss of the mayoral seat squarely on Kamanda and was quoted saying “This war is bigger than what is being seen, its about 2012,” But in a quick rejoinder, Kamanda harshly reacted saying “Beth and Waititu are sidelining some leaders who still have influence in city politics, we only have ourselves to blame”.

But another school of thought has it that the in-fighting has something to do with the senator and governorship positions in 2012. In the Kamanda camp, they have settled on him as the best candidate for Nairobi senate seat while the Waititu camp has settled on Mugo. Mugo is a close ally of Uhuru while Kamanda according to our sources is now a close ally of Prof. George Saitoti.

Also in the race is Sonko who has also declared his interest in the seat. Although Sonko is Narc-k Kenya and is allied to PNU, it is still not clear if the three will agree to nominate one of them to face ODM’s candidates.

Analysts say should the three go for a joint nomination; Sonko is likely to pull surprises going by the past voting patterns in Nairobi politics. Both Kamanda and Mugo will split the Kikuyu votes while Sonko will take the Kamba votes as a block. Unlike Mugo and Kamanda, Sonko’s political influence cuts across party and tribal boarders. He enjoys overwhelming support among the youth and women across the political divide and his lobbying skills coupled by financial muscle can easily see him floor seasoned politicians like Kamanda and Mugo.

This was the case with Makadara by-elections in which despite PNU’s financial muscle and lobbying, Sonko still managed to beat both the PNU and ODM candidates despite the fact that this was his first time in elective politics.

In ODM, Westlands MP Fred Gump is also set to battle it out with Kasarani MP Elizabeth Ongoro who has also declared interest for the seat.