Embakasi North Member of Parliament James Gakuya is planning to step down from the race for the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Nairobi chairman’s position.
According to impeccable sources, the city legislator has realized the uphill task ahead of him as the ruling UDA party holds constituency-level elections today, Friday, May 31, 2024.
Sensing a disastrous defeat, Gakuya has decided to opt out of the Nairobi UDA Chairmanship race, citing a decision made to prioritize unity over competition against Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja.
Gakuya held several frantic meetings around Nairobi yesterday in a bid to counter the mega delegates’ meeting that was held on Wednesday at the Bomas of Kenya. At this meeting, nearly 90 percent of the newly elected party delegates from most of the 85 wards in 15 constituencies in Nairobi endorsed the candidature of Governor Sakaja.
Our sources revealed that Gakuya, sensing imminent defeat, will opt out of the race early in the morning before the elections commence.
Sakaja’s Bomas meeting brought together newly elected party delegates from most of Nairobi, with only Gakuya’s Embakasi North and Embakasi Central constituencies failing to hit the 90 percent mark at the meeting.
Gakuya is also facing a lull from the sponsors of his candidature, a senior national government official who has had a tumultuous time dealing with his own political battles. Reportedly, Gakuya has attempted to meet with his sponsors over the past week with no success. Other reports suggest that the senior official has been preoccupied with his own political struggles, leaving Gakuya to fend for himself.
Gakuya’s run for the UDA county chairmanship hit headwinds when he presented himself as an ethnic candidate, often using vernacular language during his meetings. This approach backfired as most of the delegates going to vote for constituency officials are drawn from different ethnic backgrounds, representing the cosmopolitan composition of Nairobi.
Gakuya’s meetings failed to attract the elected delegates, with most invitees failing to turn up. In some areas, Gakuya met with people who lost in the ward elections, save for the two Embakasi constituencies of North and Central, where he has his main backing.
Sakaja, on the other hand, announced yesterday at Bomas that although he initially had not intended to run, his zeal to build a formidable party and the lack of a development agenda from Gakuya’s camp led him to join the race. He has already garnered overwhelming support.
During the polling station elections, candidates allied with Sakaja took a commanding lead, securing 4,500 delegates compared to Gakuya’s camp, which managed less than 1,700 delegates. This led to another victory for Sakaja in the ward elections.
Today’s UDA constituency elections are a significant stage in the electoral process because those who win will form part of the National Delegates Congress (NDC) that will select national officials. The polls are also significant for politicians seeking to contest for governor positions, as winning constituency-level leadership will boost their chances of securing UDA tickets in 2027.
In past opinion polls conducted before and after the preliminary elections at the polling stations and ward units, Sakaja, who was yet to formally declare his candidature, led Gakuya with a 63 percent rating against the MP’s 17 percent. Following the ward elections and Sakaja’s Bomas meeting, the county governor now commands nearly 90 percent of the vote to become the Nairobi county chairman in the UDA party.
