Battle lines are drawn, as Lenku, Nkedianye, Katoo flex muscles

Both governor Joseph Lenku (ODM) and former governor David Nkedianye (Jubilee) received direct nominations to battle it out in the August 9 gubernatorial race.

The United Democratic Alliance candidate, Katoo Metito, was picked in the party primaries and will now face Lenku and Nkedianye, who have both been tested.

Nkedianye was first elected Kajiado governor in the 2013 general election on an ODM party ticket after trouncing The National Alliance candidate, Daniel Nina, whose running mate was George King’ori.

At the time of that election, TNA was the government in waiting and there was much pressure to ensure that they win the Kajiado governor seat.

TNA Pressure

Nkedianye, despite the pressure, fought to win the election and become the first governor under the news devolved system.

Nina came from the Kisonko subclan of the Orokiten clan, while Nkedianye is a member of the Kaputiei Maasai of the Red Cows clan (Odomong’i).

The TNA, at the time, had just lost a candidate, Josiah Kores, after he was banned by the IEBC from contesting after it became clear he had no genuine educational credentials to enable him to vie for the governor’s seat.

In this year’s gubernatorial race, both Katoo and Lenku, who hail from the Kajiado South subcounty, will be facing off with Nkedianye from Kaputiei in the Kajiado East subcounty for the top seat.

Katoo and Lenku come from the Kisonko subclan, and on the other side, Katoo shares clan lineage with Nkedianye (Odomong’i). Lenku is from the Black Cows (Orokiteng) clan.

In every election, age set and clan matters count across the Maa nation. It is all about their leader, their clan, and the age set if those competing come from the same lineage.

Both members of the two main clans are spread all over the county and are found among the Ilkisonko, Ilkaputiei, Ildamat, Ilkeek-Onyokiei, IlPurko, Ildalalekutuk, and the Ilmatapato sub-sections of the Kajiado Maasai.

Katoo is a new entrant in the governor race, but the outgoing Kajiado South MP has been in politics for the last 20 years and has been winning elections consecutively all through.

Not a political dwarf

In other words, what we are saying is that Katoo is not a political dwarf. The outgoing MP made Lenku what he is now.

It is Katoo who took Lenku to President Uhuru Kenyatta after the 2013 general elections. Kenyatta appointed him (Lenku) the country’s Interior CS.

Immediately Lenku was appointed CS, he started squabbles with the late former Interior CS General Joseph Nkaissery. 

At the time, Nkaissery was the Kajiado Central ODM MP and Lenku would brag that he is a national leader and not a simple legislator.

Lenku did not serve long before he was fired after the Westgate Alshabaab attack fiasco.

President Kenyatta later appointed Nkaissery of ODM to take over Lenku’s position, and the retired army general was more than willing to leave the opposition and work with Kenyatta in government. 

In the 2017 general election, the Jubilee government of resident Kenyatta was determined to remove governor Nkedianye from power, and after shopping around, they landed on Lenku through Kato’s recommendations.

Lenku, again, was brought to the limelight and assisted to win the Kajiado governor seat in that election through what came to be known as the infamous 54 per cent mark.

After Lenku was announced the winner, Nkedianye did not contest in court his defeat but called it off and moved on until last year when he announced he would be in the race this year.

Because Lenku was a Jubilee government project in that election year, Kenyatta urged the Kikuyu community to vote for him as the next governor.

The county’s vote-rich basket in the north and Kitengela in the east gave all their votes to Lenku.

This time around, Nkedianye is on the other side of the fence as Lenku ran to Raila Odinga’s party for fear of an imminent clash with the former governor in the party nomination.

In the just-concluded UDA party nominations that saw Katoo beat Kajiado East MP Peris Tobiko and Francis Meja to clinch the nomination ticket, Lenku and his followers were longing for Tobiko to win.

If Tobiko would have won the UDA primaries, Lenku would have had an advantage over Nkedianye because the latter would share the Kaputiei and the Odomong’i votes in general and he would have passed in the middle to win the August 9 general election.

The Lenku side had this popular belief that a woman candidate cannot beat him. Tobiko, in her own right, is a powerful politician and a go-getter but her dream was brought down by the way the nomination was conducted in a manner to favour her opponent.

Tobiko’s popularity

Tobiko’s popularity had risen lately and was even higher than that of Katoo in the local ratings.

She would have given both Nkedianye and Lenku a run for their money, had she been nominated in the UDA primaries.

With Lenku’s equation being thrown out of the window, he will now have to face his feared opponent, Nkedianye, head-on as Katoo is busy reaping votes in his Loitokitok backyard.

Political pundits say Lenku requires the hand of God to be reelected after Nkedianye picked MP Joseph Manje from the north as his running mate.

On the other hand, Katoo is also in a popular UDA party that has made inroads in the South and North constituencies just like the Jubilee.

Worries in UDA

The worries within the UDA party now are the loyalty of the strong candidates who lost in the nominations such as Daniel Tinaai, who was gunning for the senate ticket, Tobiko, and Janet Teyiaa, who was seeking a ticket for the women’s rep race.

Teyiaa has at least moved on and said she will work with Nkedianye as she prepares to contest her position using an independent ticket.

The fate of Tobiko appears to be sealed and has not come out to show her followers the direction to take.

But if Tobiko will shift her support to Nkedianye in a bid to punish UDA for not listening to her complaints after the party nominations, Katoo and Lenku will require the hand of God to hold them.

Tobiko has a large following in all the five subcounties of Kajiado and any declaration she can make now, will be devastating if it goes against UDA.

As has always happened in every election, the politics in Kajiado is complicated and changes every other hour. It is not easy to predict the winner of the governor race in April or May when the election will take place in early August.

The same applies to the election of MPs, senator, women MP, and the MCAs. The number of political meetings taking place during the day and night after the nominations are numerous.