Mwingi voters protest MPs defection to Jubilee

A section of Mwingi Central electorate demonstrated and burned the effigy of area MP, Joe Mutambu, over what they termed as poor leadership, betrayal and abandonment by their leader.

The residents, most of them youth, demanded that the MP, who recently decamped from the Wiper Democratic Party to the newly launched Jubilee Party, relinquishes his Parliamentary seat and opens a door for a by-election saying he had betrayed his own party and the people who elected him.

The demonstrators assembled at the main Mwingi bus terminus before proceeding to a protest along the busy Garissa – Nairobi Highway to the Central Business District where they burned the effigy of the legislator.

“We are calling for a by-election and we will show him ‘dust’. He was elected on a Wiper party ticket but decided to betray the party and join Jubilee. Let it be known that he has defected alone, the constituents are not with him,” said Joshua Maluki, a voter in the area.

They said the MP had shown contempt for Wiper leader, Kalonzo Musyoka, and had no moral authority to continue earning his salary after defecting.

“Mutambu rode on Kalonzo’s back to get to Parliament but defected due to selfishness. Let it be known that Mwingi Central and Kitui County are Wiper zones,” the youth, who carried placards reading ‘Kalonzo for president 2017’, said.

Mutambu is one of the five MPs elected on Wiper but decamped to the newly formed Jubilee Party, opening a wave of condemnation from the party stalwarts.

Other MPs who decamped to Jubilee alongside Mutambu from Wiper are Kisoi Munyao (Mbooni), John Munuve (Mwingi North), Richard Makenga (Kaiti) and Regina Ndambuki (Kilome).

While addressing the press at his Karen home on Monday, September 19, Wiper leader, Kalonzo Musyoka, riled at the defectors saying they should resign from their Parliamentary posts and stop “earning immoral salaries.”

This comes even as Homa Bay MP, Peter Kaluma, wrote to the National Assembly Speaker and the Speaker of the Senate saying there was violation of security and privacy at Parliament.

“The former Members of Parliament who are deemed to have resigned from their Political Parties and vacated office by operations of the provisions of Article 103 of the Constitution, as read together with Section 14 of the Political Parties Act 2011, continue to enjoy free access to the precincts of Parliament including Plenary halls, health clubs and restaurants,” read Kaluma’s letter.

“Free access to the precincts of Parliament and facilities reserved for MPs by the said former MPs, now strangers, is putting to grave risk the security and privacy of serving Members of Parliament,” read the statement.