A resurgent Jubilee Party made a statement of intent when it captured one seat and lost the other narrowly during the just concluded by-elections in Muguga ward and Kiambaa constituency in Kiambu County.
The ruling party that suffered a humiliating defeat in the Juja Parliamentary elections two months ago put a formidable campaign to re-capture the Muguga Member of County Assembly (MCA) seat by less than 20 votes.
In the Kiambaa by-election Jubilee’s candidate Kariri Njama lost the seat to the United Democratic Party’s (UDA) candidate Njuguna Wanjiku by about 400 votes – UDA is sponsored by the Deputy President William Ruto.
The super performance by Jubilee has rattled the rank and file of UDA who had declared Jubilee dead an even taunted it that it would be buried in Kiambaa – and energized the Jubilee supporters.
Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu who was a leading figure in the campaign for Njama said that in just three weeks Jubilee destroyed Ruto’s hustler narrative by 50%.
“Three weeks of Jubilee MPs campaign chipped away 50% of a four-year hustler narrative in Kiambaa and Muguga. We now know what to do,’’ said an energized Ngunjiri.
Ngunjiri added that the by-elections had exposed their competitor and they now know how to defeat UDA in the future.
His sentiments were echoed by his colleague and Ndaragwa MP and Jubilee member who warned that in just three weeks the party had closed the gap to UDA, underling the great leap forward.
Former Dagoretti South MP and BBI co-chair Dennis Waweru thanked all the Jubilee Party supporters who emerged to support the candidate and the party.
He said the strong performance by Jubilee was because of the great love the supporters have for the party.
“The Jubilee team did an awesome and fantastic job. For your time, resources and all the energy we say Asante. We are better than Juja and we have proven that Jubilee is still popular on the ground,” he said.
Another Jubilee support Jimmy Kairu said in just one month, the party has recouped 20 per cent of the ground it had lost to Ruto’s UDA and they now shared Central Kenya on a 50-50 basis, noting that in Juja Jubilee only had about 30% of the ground.
He said going by the results in Kiambaa it was clear that Ruto’s so called hustler movement had no future and will fizzle out by 2022 if Jubilee steps up the pressure.
Kairu said the fact that Jubilee nearly made a clean sweep of the two seats should be worry DP Ruto with a year to the next general elections and with many other presidential candidates coming up.
Sections of UDA leaders from the Rift Valley home of Ruto expressed shock at the loss of Muguga and small margin in Kiambaa – warning that the perception that Ruto controlled Central Kenya was a mere illusion.
Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria and his Mathira counterpart who were leading the UDA campaigns declared Jubilee Party dead after the Juja loss and said the burial would be in Kiambaa.
