Wiper candidates in Lamu critisize NASA rally

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Lamu senatorial candidate on a wiper ticket Hassan Albeity PHOTO Natasha Neema

Lamu,KENYA:Two Lamu Wiper party candidates have criticized the manner in which the recent NASA rally in the county was conducted saying it was hijacked by Governor Issa Timamy.

Wiper gubernatorial aspirant Swaleh Imu and his senatorial counterpart Hassan Albeity said the NASA rally attended by principals Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula failed to achieve its core objective of wooing voters for NASA flag bearer Raila Odinga and was instead turned into a campaign platform for governor Timamy.

During the rally which was held at the Mkunguni Square in Lamu town,Timamy stated that he was confident that NASA had enough support in the county and that ANC would win the gubernatorial and senatorial seats,the women rep position would go to Wiper while the Lamu East and West seats would go to ODM,all  whom are in NASA.

However the two whose party is also in NASA have expressed disappointment over the governor’s utterances saying it was wrong for him to have made them look like losers even before the polls were held instead of sticking to the real agenda of the event which was to popularize NASA in its quest for the nation’s leadership.

“NASA has a big support base in Lamu including strong supporters of ODM, Wiper and Ford Kenya who felt slighted when the governor who is in ANC sidelined them to drum up support for himself. To speak the truth, ANC has very little following in Lamu and for the governor to literally sideline other parties meant he did not have the interest of NASA at heart but only interested in recapturing his seat,” said Albeity

Albeity said leaders from other NASA affiliate parties including Wiper,ODM and Ford Kenya felt short changed since the rally was solely turned into an ANC affair..

The two feel it was utterly wrong for the two NASA principals in attendance to have given governor Timamy control over the meeting because he was an interested party and that the move doesn’t auger well for the coalition’s campaign in Lamu county.

“The governor took advantage of his personal relationship with ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi to popularize,” said Albeity.

He said politics was about numbers and not friendship and the events of that day might cost NASA votes in Lamu because Timamy is not a popular candidate in the area.

He said the outcome of the presidential votes in Lamu for 2013 clearly showed that Timamy has never been interested in campaigning for anybody other than himself.

“In 2013 Timamy got 19,000 while his presidential candidate, Mudavadi of UDF then only got 2,000 votes. On the other side Fahim Twaha of TNA by then got 17, 000 votes and the presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta got almost the same number of votes,”he said.

During the meeting Timamy went ahead to announce his team that comprised of himself, Mohamed Hashim (senate ANC) and Shakila Abdalla (Women Rep-Wiper) .

The two however said Timamy didn’t have NASA’s interests at heart and that if he did he wouldn’t have given the recent tour of the county by Wiper party leader and NASA principal Kalonzo Musyoka a wide berth.

Imu said it was wrong for Timamy to have been given the nod to organize the meeting since he deliberately failed to invite him (Imu) because he was also a gubernatorial aspirant.

“Timamy who was given the mandate to organize the meeting did not invite me simply because am also contesting the gubernatorial seat.The sad thing is that by alienating us he was putting NASA’s popularity in jeopardy as this might cost the coalition some votes,” said Imu.

During the rally,Timamy openly referred to Imu and ODM gubernatorial aspirant Abdalla Fadhil as political puppets who were being used by his long time rival Fahim Twaha of Jubilee to ruin his votes in the county.

In retaliation,Imu however feels the incumbent governor is more likely to be the Jubilee project because he has always warmed up to President Uhuru Kenyatta and said he has severally been quoted as saying he will support the president.

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