Sweet victory for women MP nominees

By Wainaina Ndung’u

KENYA: The completion of party primaries in Central Kenya has sent an indication that there could be an upsurge of women MPs in the region.

At the completion of The National Alliance (TNA) primaries, five women got the party ticket to vie in constituency MP seats in the Kiambu, Nyeri and Murang’a counties.

The nominees are besides the others contesting for the five affirmative action – woman MP – seats for the five counties in the region.

Next MPs

Because the TNA is the dominant party in this region, it is expected that those who have won the party ticket will most likely be the next MPs for these constituencies.

Kiambu and Murang’a counties, which have never produced an elected woman MP since Independence, are set to get their first lot in the March 4 elections.

In Murang’a County’s Kandara constituency, lawyer Alice Muthoni Wahome finally managed to secure the ticket of the dominant regional party after several tries that include a bitter 2007 loss to immediate former MP Maina Kamau.

Despite a dirty campaign, Muthoni managed to edge out Kamau, garnering 27,600 votes with the former MP managing 10,080 votes. It was a sweet victory for the city lawyer.

In Kiambu, TNA nomination winners are Alice Ng’ang’a (Thika town) and little known Esther Gathogo, who defeated immediate past Ruiru Mayor Geoffrey Kaara to get the party ticket in Ruiru constituency.

First family

In Thika town, Ng’ang’a, who lost narrowly in the 2009 by-elections to immediate past Juja MP William Kabogo, signalled she is the woman to beat when she managed 7,643 votes against closest challenger Morris Mburu who got 4,099.

The wins by the three in Murang’a and Kiambu counties are besides the best showing by TNA women candidates in the province recorded in Nyeri County where two out of six constituencies may now have women MPs.

In President Kibaki’s former Othaya constituency, the mantle after 38 years of the president’s incumbency is likely to go to businesswoman Mary Wambui Munene, who edged out Othaya Development Association chairman James Gichuki Mugambi despite the latter’s support by the members of the first family.

Ms Wambui, a political operative who has coordinated activities in the constituencies for decades on behalf of Kibaki, managed 13,050 votes in a bitter, close contest with Mugambi, who managed 10,080 votes.

She is likely to be in Parliament with Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi, who managed to win the TNA Nyeri town ticket in a crowded field dominated by former councillors in the Nyeri Municipal Council.

Percentage difference

If Wambui and Murugi win their seats, there will be three women MPs from Nyeri county (42.85 per cent) against four men (57 per cent) in the National Assembly.

However, Kirinyaga County, which together with Nyandarua County were the first in the province to elect woman MPs in 1992 (Martha Karua in Gichugu and Mary Wanjiru in Kinangop) did not have any woman contesting the TNA ticket for the constituency MP seats as all contestants opted for the woman MP seat.