By Betty Luke
President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party is on the spot over disputed nomination of former Laikipia Woman Representative Cate Waruguru’s kin to Isiolo County Assembly.
Kelvin Mbuthia, who lost in the party nominations for Thingithu MCA seat, is among the two nominated by the party to represent its interests in the Assembly.
A section of the local leaders and supporters have decried what they say is betrayal by the party for replacing one Fatuma Abdullahi’s name with Mbuthia who is neither a bonafide Isiolo resident nor a registered voter in the county.
Led by Burat MCA Nicholas Lorot, the group said allowing Mr Mbuthia to Isiolo’s county assembly would be an injustice to the members who had invested their resources in popularizing the party in the region.
“We are surprised to see his name (Mbuthia) in the nomination list representing the marginalized under female category while we had several locals who had expressed interest in the same,” said Mr Lorot.
The position, he said, should be given to a local resident who is well conversant with the challenges faced by the communities living in the county and not an “outsider”.
“We have many problems including drought, hunger and poor roads that we are sure can only be addressed by people who are well conversant with them and not by those drawn from other places,” he added.
While expressing their dissatisfaction in Isiolo town, they hit out at the UDA party for not addressing their grievances despite complaining on several occasions over the matter.
Mr Mohammed Ayub who unsuccessfully contested for Wabera MCA seat urged Mr Mbuthia to keep off the post else they will seek legal redress to eject him out of the county assembly.
“We will hold peaceful protests to ensure he is not sworn in as an MCA and in case it does not work, we will process to court until justice is served to our people,” he maintained.
Ms Amina Abdi Dahir, popularly known as Baby Hustler, appealed to President Ruto to intervene and ensure fairness in the process saying replacing Ms Fatuma with someone who was not in the county’s proposed initial list would depict the party as corrupt.
“We will continue supporting our President but we want him to ensure we get justice,” she said.
This is the second time local UDA leaders and supporters have come out to protest Mr Mbuthia’s nomination with the party yet to respond to the matter even as swearing in of the MCAs draws closer.
