All tricks in play in Kitui county guv race – Weekly Citizen

If songs could win votes, then Kiema Kilonzo would be elected governor of Kitui by 8am in next year’s general elections. With a year and half to go, Kiema who is the Kenya ambassador to Uganda has had two songs released all in his praise. The latest song that was released last week is in Kikamba language the lingua franca of the region and its video version has still picture montages of Kiema shot by a mobile phone whereby in one he is seen getting his Covid19 vaccine jab. The song by artist Manengwa then goes on to enumerate the things Kiema will do for the people of Kitui if they elect him governor. For the first time in their lives, the people of Kitui are told by Manengwa whose rasta hairstyle has his dreadlocks reaching his waist, they will see development.

Kiema Kilonzo

From roads to schools to electricity to water for irrigation, Manengwa sings, Kiema will make all these things a reality if he is elected governor. As for employment of youth, the song goes, the young of Kitui will all have equal chance to get employment at the county without favouritism that the song implies is the hallmark of Governor Charity Ngilu’s government. The Kikamba language song comes after another one that Kiema released last year in Kiswahili language and which was sang by a Koffi Olomide look-alike. Indeed, the people of Kitui are up to date convinced that Kiema contracted the international star Olomide to do the song for him with many suggesting that Kiema forked millions of shillings for the song given that it is not a cheap thing to even have Olomide give you an appointment leave along sing for you. Because he is absent from the scene of action on ground as he represents Uhuru Kenyatta in Uganda, Kiema must have decided to try to make his presence felt through song. How widely these songs are played or whether they have an impact is another thing.

Julius Malombe

The songs have been going viral in all Kitui social and digital media platforms. The only place where they can never be played is in Mbaitu FM or Syokimau FM Kamba radio stations that are owned by Ngilu. The other local radio station that would have aired Kiema’s praise songs is Athiani FM owned by Kalonzo Musyoka who supports former governor Julius Malombe and whom his Wiper party will be handing the nomination certificate to do battle with Kiema and Ngilu of Narc. Kiema is yet to declare the party he will gun for the seat on. In the last two elections, Kiema contested on Jubilee party which saw him being awarded with a post of ambassador first in Turkey and now in Uganda. Some time back, Kiema had tried to make his way to Wiper in style by declaring that he would name Kalonzo’s son as his running mate. Kiema a former Mutitu MP went to the extent of inviting Kalonzo and his son Kennedy to Uganda where he treated them like royalty using government money. It does not seem that Kiema’s scheme worked fantastically because that was the last we saw him with Kalonzo or with his son. Indeed, as if to trash that very notion that he could have his son roped in by Kiema, Kalonzo at a funeral in Makueni that was attended by Kiema spoke so rudely that Kiema left the funeral unceremoniously.

Charity Ngilu

Uncharacteristically of the Kalonzo that people used to know although it has increasingly become his new trait, Kalonzo after Kiema had spoken introducing himself as a diplomat, told off Kiema saying that there was not a strand of diplomacy in Kiema’s whole being. Some saw this as a case of jealousy on the part of Kalonzo who has in the last few decades been styling himself as the foremost diplomat in Kenya but who now has been given the work of errand boy by Uhuru to be sent whatever Uhuru wants around Africa when Uhuru feels the occasion is not important to be graced by a cabinet secretary. Kiema saw this attack by Kalonzo as a warning that Kalonzo will make even more attacks when the campaigns start and has since then cut his own path and is bracing to take on the might of Wiper in Kitui county. The disadvantage Kiema has which is a disadvatange the other two Ngilu and Malombe face being that they all come from Kitui and could actually be referred to as neighbours which means that they are going to share the area votes to the advantage of any other candidate from Mwingi district. In the last elections, that candidate was David Musila who had beaten Malombe in the Wiper primaries but was denied the certificate by Kalonzo which forced Musila to run as an independent coming a strong second after Ngilu with Malombe coming a distant third looking like a no-show.

David Musila

With Musila now out of the race because of age and the risks of Covid-19, it is being watched keenly who from Mwingi which is Kalonzo’s home will come out and seek to wear the boots Musila has left. It is expected that the three will pick a running mate from Mwingi so as to top on the vote there as they share the home vote in Kitui. In the aftermath of the BBI referendum should it pass, it is likely that there could be a backlash against Kalonzo from the voters of Kitui county that the county which is bigger than all Gema counties has not even had even a single constituency added to it yet Kiambu alone will have six new constituencies. Because Ngilu is also a proponent of BBI, she could also be seen as a traitor by the voters of Kitui who believe that they deserve more constituencies than Central Kenya because of the huge distances and the historical marginalisation. It is against this background that anyone who opposed the BBI on these facts could strike a cord and benefit but being Uhuru’s appointee, Kiema is unlikely to be that person.