By Joseph Kiplimo
JAP Nairobi Implosion averted as Sakaja crafts surprise tripartite gubernatorial alliance
Last week’s surprise announcement that Nominated MP Johnson Sakaja, Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko, and Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru have decided to work together have thrown sections JAP alliance Nairobi branch into panic
As it is, the Nairobi gubernatorial race is shaping up to what pundits say will be a politically mouth-watering contest as at least eight aspirants Jubilee aspirants have declared intent to attempt to wrest control from incumbent, CORD’s Evans Kidero.
Sources say the brains behind the unlikely alliance – which is code-named “Team Nairobi” – is Hon Sakaja Johnson who has persuaded his colleagues to stop fighting each other individual but forge an alliance that will see each emerge a winner in 2017. Sakaja, sources intimate, was motivated by the need to calm nerves in State House which was increasingly getting apprehensive about the effects of premature and aggressive campaigning in Nairobi.
Sakaja’s meteoric rise to national political prominence has not gone unnoticed. The youthful MP who is known to have the president’s ear has clearly impressed senior Jubilee functionaries through his diplomatic and non-tribal style that seen him gain popularity not just within Jubilee but also among conservative admirers in CORD led by ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Although Water CS Eugene Wamalwa has formed an unlikely alliance with Bishop Margaret Wanjiru with whom she has been touring the city in the last month, the shocking announcement that Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko, Nominated MP Johnson Sakaja and Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru have formed a faction within JAP and decided to get into a strategic working arrangement that has silenced the Kamanda group as it would not only render competitors within their coalition irrelevant, but also ensure Governor Kidero goes home on election day.
Sakaja’s style contrasts sharply with the abrasive style of DP William Ruto and Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, both supporters of Eugene Wamalwa, which has made the president worried that he may lose support in Nairobi because of the duo. He is looking to build bridges that Ruto and Kuria have destroyed.
Sakaja reckons that his working relationship with Sonko and Waweru is informed by the need to keep Jubilee united and absolute necessity to have a candidate that appeals to majority of Nairobi residents. An internal poll commissioned by Jubilee reveals Sonko as the leading candidate closely followed by Sakaja with Waweru a distant third.
The result of this poll has sent Jubilee strategist back to the drawing board and it’s victim is likely to be Water CS Eugene Wamalwa who the poll says has absolutely no chance against any candidate that will be fronted by CORD supremo Raila Odinga.
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