Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru has warned Deputy President William Ruto against celebrating too soon following his candidate’s win in Kiambaa by-election ahead of the 2022 presidential race.
Waiguru said this after allies to the DP took to their social media pages to celebrate the Kiambaa by-election where UDA candidate John Njuguna won the hotly contested Kiambaa by-election.
On Friday, July 16, the Kirinyaga Governor took to social media saying that by-elections in Kenya are never a reflection of what to expect in a General Election.
“In Kenya’s electoral history, by-elections have always been outliers with little or no relationship with the General Election,” she said in a Tweet.
Waiguru further said the Jubilee’s embarrassing loss to rival UDA, a party heavily associated with Ruto should be a wake-up call to the party to make reforms that would revamp the party back to its lost glory ahead of the 2022 General Election.
“Having said that, there are two warnings that could be extracted for both Jubilee and UDA,
“For Jubilee is that its core supporters are unhappy and urgent action is needed to forestall further downward slide,” the County boss said.
Official results from the electoral body IEBC showed that UDA candidate John Wanjiku garnered 21,773 votes while his closest rival, Kariri Njama of Jubilee, came in second with 21,263 votes.
Jubilee’s defeat in Kiambaa adds to the scars they suffered after losing the Juja constituency seat earlier this year when a PEP candidate Geofrey Koimburi floored Jubilee’s Susan Njeri Wakapee, the widow to former MP of Juja.
After the defeat in Juja parliamentary seat, a section of Jubilee party members has been calling for a total overhaul of the party’s management to salvage the collapsing Jubilee.
In the changes which were endorsed by Jubilee party leader President Uhuru Kenyatta, former nominated MP Osman Hasan, lawyer Kamau Mbugua and former Kangema MP Titus Ngahu were appointed as Senior Directors for Outreach, Legal and Elections and Membership, respectively.
As part of the move to reform the Jubilee party, the outfit further appointed Wambui Gichuru as Jubilee’s Acting Executive Director while Albert Memusi retained his position as the party’s Communications Director.
