How The ‘System’, Goons Were Used To Rob Me Of My Victory – Wainaina.

Eng. Patrick Wainaina Wa Jungle addressing a press conference on Wednesday when he announced his defection from Jubilee Party and his resolve to vie as an independent candidate come August 8.

Powerful officials at the Jubilee Party (JP) Headquarters, Thika security personnel and some goons were some of the people responsible for the loss of Eng. Patrick Wainaina Wa Jungle in his bid to clinch the prestigious Thika Town Constituency JP ticket for the August 8 General Elections.

Addressed a press conference at a Thika Hotel on Wednesday, Eng. Wainaina complained of blatant vote stealing and rigging in the repeat party nominations in majority of the polling centres especially those that were more inclined to the sitting MP Alice Wambui Ng’ang’a.

1. Powerful people at JP HQs       

Wainaina lamented that some powerful individuals at the JP HQs in Pangani manipulated the process through unfairly favouring the incumbent and using the county administration to rig the elections.

He said that after realising some anomalies in the failed primaries held last Friday, Wainaina went to the JP HQs to lodge his complaints. Among his grievances were some returning officers and clerks who were said to be favouring the incumbent in most polling stations.

“I raised my concerns at JP HQs on Monday and they have a memorandum of the issues we raised but it was very clear from the word go that someone at the wanted me out and was determined to achieve this unfairly. Even after they promised me that they would reshuffle the clerks, all those clerks who supervised last Friday’s failed elections assumed their roles in the stations. When my team complained of the same on Tuesday morning at The Thika Town Hall, they were harassed and intimidated by the police and other agents of my competitor,” said Wainaina.

Wainaina said that in some polling centres where Alice had strong following, she was allowed to have as many agents inside the voting hall as she wanted, with her opponents forced to make do with only one per polling station.

He added that the 15 among those who presided over the exercise people well known to sympathetic to the incumbent.

“Some of these people worked at the C.D.F. office under the current MP. There were others who on Friday, acted as her agents at various polling stations across the constituency. How do you become the judge and the bench in your own case? It was very evident that the jury was leaning towards the incumbent and there was no way they could be expected to deliver a just verdict,” he lamented.

2. Tampering of results.

Wainaina complained that there were a few cases the Returning Officers deliberately altered the results in favour of the sitting MP. He said that whenever concerns were raised by his agents, they got thrown out in the full glare of police officers. He added that after the exercise, some of these people could be heard bragging about the malpractices along the streets and within the polling station themselves.

Wainaina also claimed that there were videos going round on social media showing cases of elections malpractices as well as agents and opposition supporters being harassed or beaten by both the police and Alice’s supporters.

He noted that such malpractices were more so perpetrated deep in the night in the polling station where polling went beyond midnight.

“Just to say the least, these results were a sham and it is very painful when the vote of any vote fail to count. This was not rigging but direct robbery,” he said.

3. Security forces, administration aided rigging.

The aspirant noted that from the beginning of the campaigns last years, aspirants have been complaining of interference of the administration in favour of the incumbent. He said that all through, their grievances fell on deaf ears as decisions made by the authorities have always been skewed to favour the sitting MP.

Last Tuesday, according to Wainaina, this bias became so evident among some police officers and chiefs who sided with the incumbent’s agents and supporters to intimidate Wainaina’s supporters and agents. In some cases, the security forces intimidated returning officers who were not willing to cooperate.

“There was a direct intimidation in polling stations where my competitor was very strong and in areas that the race for votes was tight. The local administration openly favoured the incumbent in all the decisions they made to contain the situation irrespective of who was in the wrong. In some of these polling stations, my agents were intimidated and ejected as the MP’s activists took over polling stations. You had no idea who was voting and who wasn’t, or even what transpired within these polling stations in the absence of my agents. Unfortunately for me, it was really hard to control what they were doing as the administration was on their side,” he said.

4. Stuffed photocopied ballots for MP.

The use of photocopied ballot papers by the JP leadership was the most unfortunate decision the JP HQs made in these primaries, noted Wainaina. He pointed out that some supporters of the incumbent went and photocopied ballots meant for the MP and pre-marked them in favour of the sitting MP. 

Those voters known to support the incumbent were said to have stuffed these illegal ballots within their clothing and stuffed them into the ballot boxes meant to for the MP.

“A group of the incumbent’s supporters went round the constituency distributing the photocopied ballots and assisted them to smuggle ballot papers into the boxes. That explains why the total votes cast for the MPs did not tally with any of the other seats. Those for the MPs way exceeded those of the MCAs, Senators, Women Reps and the governors,” said Maina Theuri, the chairman of Wainaina’s campaign team.

He also noted that people known to be supporters of his opponent were allowed to vote using an ID card and their names written down in an exercise book whenever their names missed in the IEBC/Party registers. These privileges  were not accorded to supporters of Wa Jungle or Morris Mburu for they were all turned away.

Vie as an Independent Candidate.

All in all, said that he would not seek redress from the party leadership as it was now evident to him that they had a preferred candidate. He therefore officially resigned from Jubilee Party and would seek election as an independent candidate. He exuded confidence that he would beat all the odds and emerge triumphant come August 8 despite having to work against the forces behind his ouster from the party.

“Well, besides all what they did to rig themselves in, they only managed to beat me with barely a thousand votes. I refuse to concede defeat. So, let’s meet on August 8 and may the will of Thika people prevail. Otherwise, I thank all of you for the support you accorded me. Alluta Continua,” said Wainaina.

Support President Uhuru.

He said that he was in of support President Uhuru Kenyatta’s reelection bid and would seeks votes for him and his deputy as he solicited for his own votes for MP. He added that his mission to transform Thika was still in course and none of his programmes would stop.