Embakasi North Member of Parliament James Gakuya is planning to step down from the race in the contest for United Democratic Alliance Nairobi chairman’s position.
According to impeccable sources, the city legislator has come to the realisation of 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, according to sources has decided to opt out of the Nairobi UDA Chairmanship race in what he will announce as 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 where nearly 90 percent of the newly elected party delegates from most of the 85 wards in 15 constituencies in Nairobi endorsed the candidature of Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja.
Our sources revealed that Gakuya has smelt the coffee and sensing eminent defeat, he will opt out of the race early in the morning before the elections take off.
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 wars and along the way leaving Gakuya to his own guns. Reportedly, Gakuya has in the last week made attempts to meet with the sponsors of his bid with no success as other reports suggest that the big man has been facing incessant fights due to his onslaught on Governor Sakaja and his administration.
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 whereas 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 are said to have backfired as most of the elected delegates invited to his meetings failed to turn up while in some areas, Gakuya met people who lost in the ward elections save for the two Embakasi constituencies of North and Central where he is said to have his main backing.
Sakaja on the other hand went all out announcing, yesterday at Bomas that even though he initially had not intended to run, his zeal to participate in building a formidable party coupled with an acute lack of development agenda from the Gakuya camp made him join the race in which he has already garnered an overwhelming support.
During the polling station elections, candidates allied to Sakaja took a commanding 4,500 lead over Gakuya’s camp who managed less 1,700 delegates leading to another victory for the Sakaja camp in the ward elections.
Friday’ UDA constituency elections are a significant stage of the electoral process because those who win constituency elections will form part of the National Delegates Congress(NDC) that will pick 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 that were 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 and going by the happenings after the ward elections which culminated to Sakaja’s Bomas meeting, the county governor commands nearly 90percent of the vote to become the Nairobi county chairman in the UDA party.