Chaos mar Muranga Jubilee board elections

Jubilee Murang’a County board elections on Saturday disrupted after police lobbed tear gas to disperse clashing supporters of Governor Mwangi wa Iria and his rival MP Jamleck Kamau.

Drama  played out at the  Murang’a Teachers Training College after Governor Wa Iria  and MP Kamau’s supporters stormed the venue  after overpowering security officers.

At one point, the Murang’a governor – mobbed by his supporters-  disobeyed an order by police to exit the venue prompting a senior police officer to order his juniors to lob tear gas canisters to disperse the rowdy crowd.

His body guards were forced to whisk him away to his vehicle as the police chased away his supporters.

Battle for political supremacy between Wa Iria and Kamau played out as their supporters clashed openly forcing security officers to intervene.

Governor Wa Iria was protesting over perceived irregularities that he said would undermine the integrity of the party while his rival Kamau wanted the election to proceed.

The governor questioned why the party had kept details on the process secret and the absence of the Murang’a party interim chairman Simon Kamau who was supposed to chair the meeting.

“We cannot allow irregularities as the party seemed to be working with a section of the people with ill motives aiming at manipulating the process,” said Iria.

However, Kamau accused his rival of sabotaging the exercise by allowing his supporters into the venue.

At 3pm, the members were vetted and allowed into the hall.

Addressing the meeting, Ntimama postponed the election to Tuesday following a communication she obtained  from the party secretariat.

However, many of the candidates who opposed postponement of the exercise said they would give names of the nine officials to the head office for ratification.

Inside the hall, the aspirants blamed the cancellation of the exercise on the raging differences between Wa Iria and the Kigumo MP.

 

Tags:

Governor Mwangi Wa Iria Chaos Alice Wahome ( Kandara) supporters Peter Kamande( Maragua) Kigumo Member of Parliament Jamleck Kamau 4 suspected thugs shot dead in Murang'a Jubilee party secretariat Leah Ntimama Mr Ken Marita Murang’a county electio

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