Kelvin Kioko, better known by his stage as Bahati, a musician who had hoped to represent Mathare in parliament, seems to have run out of options now that the Azimio One Kenya Coalition has chosen Anthony Aluoch to do so.
At Monday’s joint delegates conference of the ODM and Jubilee, ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna announced that the ODM’s favored candidate, Aluoch, would run for the seat, and that Bahati, who had been running on the Jubilee ticket, would withdraw from the race.
Sifuna has stated that after the August elections, he will offer Bahati a different job in the Azimio-One Kenya outfit due to Bahati’s exclusion from the contest.
“Our colleagues from Jubilee will be presenting their candidates from eight constituencies and those from ODM will present some from eight constituencies,” said Sifuna.
“Zoning was done perfectly even here in Mathare we have agreed that its an ODM zone. We only have one candidate in Mathare and that is Anthony Oluoch, this young man called Bahati is my younger brother and we will talk. I will make sure that we find him another position within the Azimio government.”
Bahati was instructed to put his aspirations on hold by Rachel Shebesh, the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) for the Ministry of Public Service, Youth, and Gender Affairs.
Shebesh claims that even Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi has abandoned his bid for governor of Nairobi in favor of Igathe, Azimio’s favored candidate.
” We have talked with Bahati several times asking him to work with us in the lager government. Bahati you are not even at the level of Tim Wanyonyi who dropped his bid to be Nairobi governor, ” Shebesh said.
The newest development is that on Friday, an Azimio Coalition Council Meeting led by MP Junet Mohamed formed a committee to harmonize and rationalize candidates in areas where several candidates could lose the coalition party seats.
Nonetheless, the presidential election should be unaffected by any decision about weak candidates who drop aside in favor of strong ones. Tomorrow, the coalition council will hear the committee’s findings.
