Kitui Wiper party gubernatorial seat hopeful, Kiema Kilonzo, has hired renowned lawyer, Erick Mutua, to challenge the party decision on Monday to give a direct ticket to his rival Julius Malombe.
On Tuesday, Mutua confirmed that he had received instruction from Kilonzo to pursue all available avenues to ensure that the decision to give the Wiper ticket to Malombe to the disadvantage of his client was overturned.
In a text message in response to MWINGI TIMES inquiries on Tuesday Ambassador Kilonzo, the immediate former Kenya’s High Commissioner to Uganda, confirmed that he had instructed his lawyers to seek justice for him.
“It is true that I have instructed my lawyers to challenge this action as it is against the Political Party Act which provides for the party to issue ticket through either consensus or nominations,” said Kilonzo’s terse test.
Kilonzo, was expected to square it with Kitui’s first governor Malombe for the Wiper ticket at universal suffrage primaries that were scheduled to take place on Thursday April 21 only for party to declare the latter its flag bearer at a National Governing Council (NGC) meeting on Monday.
Amb Kiema was set to run for governor in Kitui County with Kalonzo’s son Kelvin as his deputy.
Before the shocker decision to Kilonzo was made, he had earlier in the day snubbed a Wiper election tribunal meeting where both him and Malombe had been invited in an attempt to break the deadlock on whom among the duo would be ideal candidate to fly the Wiper flag.
With Malombe attending the Monday meeting, a decision was made to hand him the Wiper ticket. The decision was consequently communicated to and ratified by the Wiper National Governing Council chaired by party leader Kalonzo Musyoka later on Monday.
The official ceremony to hand over the Wiper certificate to Malombe was scheduled to take place before noon on Tuesday at the SKM Command Centre on Tuesday. But Lawyer Mutua, a former LSK President, said he has firm instruction to seek justice for Kilonzo.
“We are initially going to explore the Wiper Party dispute resolution mechanism and the political parties’ resolution avenues. If all that fails to work, then we will eventually end up in court to get justice,” said the lawyer.
Mutua added that he was in the process of writing to the Wiper party headquarters for the nitty gritty as well as the grounds for sidelining Kilonzo and issuing a certificate to Malombe before filing formal complaint.
STORY By MWINGI TIMES CORRESPONDENT
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