BY WINSTONE MUSISI
Deputy President William Ruto-linked United Democratic Alliance is facing an acid test in its North Rift region stronghold as more aspirants for various political seats ditch it in favor of contesting as independent candidates ahead of the party nomination exercise slated for next month.
The aspirants, some of whom are close allies of the second in command in the country have cited various factors that have prompted them to jump ship key among them favouritism and manipulation in the upcoming party nomination.
Led by Francis Murgor who has declared his interest to vie for Kapseret parliamentary seat on an independent ticket, said there would be no democracy in his former party, UDA when it comes to nomination.
The seat is currently held by DP’s close ally Oscah Sudi who has vowed to contest for a third term come August 9th on United Democratic Alliance ticket.
Murgor who has been popularizing UDA since last year said that he had decided to ditch it ahead of the nomination exercise after consulting widely among his supporters, opinion leaders, the clerics and family members.
Another UDA MP aspirant who has jumped ship is Steve Kewa who claimed that he saw no chance of clinching the Kapseret parliamentary seat on DP-linked party due to interference from his close allies.
“I would rather run my campaign as an independent candidate because the UDA party which I had invested my time and resources in has been infiltrated by brokers,” said Kewa.
Speaking in Eldoret town today, Murgor said that he together with his supporters have been pondering about the nomination process in the UDA which he said is very popular in the region.
“I have in my opinion concluded that the said party will have a lot of challenges during the nomination process. With this and other personal reasons and after careful consideration, I have resigned from the UDA party and run on an independent ticket in my quest to wrestle the Kapseret parliamentary seat from Hon Oscah Sudi,’ said Murgor.
He, however, reiterated his commitment to work with the Deputy President when elected as the fifth President of the Republic of Kenya in August 9th general election.
“I therefore want to ask the people of Kapseret to ignore the propaganda and malicious politics that has already been engineered by our opponents about being an independent candidate and focus on changing the leadership in our constituency,” he said.