Jubilee party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni has defended the red party against claims that the President Uhuru Kenyatta-led outfit is unpopular in the Mt Kenya region.
Accusing the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) of rigging elections in parts of the Central Kenya region, Kioni has insisted that DP William Ruto’s party won elections by scheming.
Speaking on KTN News, Kioni stated that he only noted something was amiss hours before the elections. The lawyer also claimed that he found it suspicious that UDA politicians had been pointing out those who were going to be ousted prior to the polls.
“We went into the election with a much shorter period of campaigning than our opponents,” Mr Kioni stated before dismissing claims of a ‘yellow wave’ in the region, “It’s very difficult that there would be a wave and all of us miss it. Had there been a wave, anyone could tell that it has hit but in this case nobody, not even any of us who were running under Jubilee would tell of a wave.”
The former Ndaragwa MP added: “Occasionally, there were those who would tell us ‘I’m certain you will not make it,’ or ‘You will make it by a whisker’, so it is something else other than a wave… It is a nice scheme that was done and worked on very nicely and we did not put our finger on it early enough… many things were happening that were not usual.”
Kioni, who accused the UDA party of rigging the elections in 33 constituencies, said there was a massive plot to rig saying there was subtle rigging even in polling stations where he voted.
“When you realize you have not won even in a single polling station including where you vote, then you say wait a minute, there was subtle rigging” Kioni stated.
The outgoing Ndaragwa member of parliament said the rigging was very meticulous casting doubt of whether even the courts could overturn the wins. Kioni said the elections in the region had small shreds of things done proving they were rigged.
“Everything in the election was choreographed from the UDA agents to presiding officers, to the UDA agents, they were all working as a unit, “ he stated.
Major political bigwigs in the Mount Kenya region were pushed out by the UDA wave, Nyeri Town incumbent member of parliament Ngunjiri Wambugu who lost to UDAs Duncan Mathenge also brought up rigging allegations and said he would follow up the matter to court.
“So apparently 56,039 people voted for MP on Tuesday in Nyeri Town. The total number of registered voters is 89,000. So on Tuesday, we had a 64.3% voter turnout in Nyeri Town?” Ngujiri wrote on his Facebook page.
He added: “People should relax. Election disputes aren’t about who has the best insults. Petitions are part of elections. If you won legit, it’s easy to prove. You should only worry if you loaded a consistent number of votes per polling station.”