Jubilee candidate in the Kibra By-elections Macdonald Mariga could find his candidature terminated by the party after a series of allegations were raised against him.
Shortly after his announcement as the party’s flagbearer on Monday, an aspirant on Tuesday petitioned the Jubilee party over the selection of the soccer star as its candidate citing that the exercise was done in secrecy and contrary to party rules.
Mr. Morris Peter Kinyanjui, who was among the 16 aspirants interviewed by Jubilee’s National Elections Board (NEB) through a petition to Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju accused the party of not conducting an open, free, fair and transparent nomination through a secret ballot or the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) as the party’s constitution states.
But what raised the eyebrows further are Kinyanjui’s claims that Mariga was not a registered voter in Kenya.
Kinyajui in his petition also alluded to claim that Mariga is not a resident or a voter of Kibra constituency adding that he had not taken part in any voting exercise in Kenya.
Sources said Mariga was listed as a voter in Kariakor only two weeks ago and his name is not among gazetted Kibra voters by IEBC.
Additionally, Mariga may not be considered as a registered voter in Kenya just yet because the updated register has not been gazetted as required by law. The last time IEBC gazetted voters was in 2017 before the general elections.
To add water on already slippery ground, football sensation is said to have also heard that the interview questions were leaked to him early in advance in what gave him an edge over his ticket competitors.
It is alleged that the footballer could have had an upper hand in the interview because his nomination was engineered by Dr. Ruto who is said to have pushed for his candidature when the party was reluctant to field a candidate in the ODM dominated constituency.
The DP is said to have pulled all strings in the Jubilee Party National Elections Board under Andrew Musangi.
Sources within the party say that of the six NEB members, Ruto draws loyalty from three of them and worked to tilt the scales with Musangi.
As a result, Mariga’s scores in the interview were as follows; Musangi gave Mariga 80 marks, Aden Noor Ali gave him 92 marks, Leah Ntimama (88), Samuel Kobia (72), Michael Waweru (75) and Carolyne Kamende (93)
Mariga’s selection has triggered disgruntlement amongst Jubilee supporters with some of them allegedly vowing to support opponents.