Trouble is looming within the UDA party in Bungoma as the party navigates the difficult question of who becomes its flagbearer between three aspirants in the forthcoming senatorial by-election slated for the 8th of December.
Hon. Mwambu Mabonga, the immediate former Bumula Member of Parliament, Mr. Walter Trenk, the party’s Deputy Organizing Secretary and Eng. Timothy Kitangasi Lukorito have shown aspirations for the UDA ticket. There has been a simmering row between the two camps (Mwambu vs Trenk) over what one faction of the party members believe is a claw-back on the gains made by the party where the top leadership had promised that party tickets would not be a preserve of any special group of people within the party. One of the members, Mr. Fred Khaemba from Webuye East, who spoke to ikuweikuwe.com expressed disappointment in the manner in which the new UDA administration was handling its ardent supporters who wholeheartedly stood with the party and sacrificed to ensure victory in the just-concluded general elections.
He claimed that no single member from the 42 lobby groups that supported President William Ruto had been appointed or nominated to any position so far. Another UDA member, Mr. Joseph Khwatenge from Tongaren claimed that the party seems to have settled on Mr. Mabonga as its candidate in the senatorial by-election and yet he had been given a direct ticket in the last general elections but failed to deliver. “Is this a party for hustlers as we were told or is it for dynasties?” He posed. Khwatenge’s comment was in response to a statement attributed to Webuye West member of Parliament, Mr. Dan Wanyama who claimed a fortnight ago that the party ticket for the by-election will be given to his former colleague Mr. Mabonga.
Mr. Wanyama had, in his remarks, claimed that he had not seen any suitable person from among the aspirants who had shown interest apart from his former colleague. The statement was not received well by a section of UDA members in Bungoma and it might cost the party the much needed support.
Mr Trenk is a prominent member of the Friends of Ruto Movement, a lobby group that campaigned for the election of President William Ruto.
The members called upon the party leadership to consider giving the ticket to Trenk besides making other public appointments for some of their members as a way of recognizing the role of the lobby groups in the Ruto campaign.
Further, a UDA supporter from Kimilili Constituency Mr. Joel Masinde intimated that it would be highly insensitive, an insult and a back-handed slap to the people of Bumula constituency if the party were to ask them to elect a person they had rejected in the National Assembly election in August to now elect them to the Senate within a span of three months.
When asked about what action they would take if the party ignored their concerns, they said: “it will be messy and it will have casualties” borrowing the words of the National Assembly speaker Moses Wetang’ula when he made comments in parliament in 2018 after being removed from the position of Leader of Minority in the Senate.
Currently, all the three candidates have pitched tent in Nairobi lobbying for their various interests.
