{"id":978463,"date":"2022-02-06T09:56:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-06T09:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/02\/06\/nandi-hopefuls-have-eyes-on-the-prize-ahead-of-uda-primaries\/"},"modified":"2022-02-06T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T09:56:11","slug":"nandi-hopefuls-have-eyes-on-the-prize-ahead-of-uda-primaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/02\/06\/nandi-hopefuls-have-eyes-on-the-prize-ahead-of-uda-primaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Nandi hopefuls have eyes on the prize ahead of UDA primaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"card-text\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"art-img row mx-md-0\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nonoiryfyhyj1fk61ff944c60406.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid w-100\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"bg-light mb-3 p-3 row mx-md-0\">\n<p><strong>Nandi County Governor Stephen Sang.<\/strong> [Peter Ochieng, Standard]\n<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Nandi\u00a0has turned into a political battlefield as seasoned politicians and newcomers battle it out for the county\u2019s top seat.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>The race has been reduced to a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) affair, with five aspirants preparing to face off in the April primaries.\n<\/p>\n<p>The cut-throat competition for the UDA ticket has the incumbent Stephen Sang facing his predecessor Cleophas Lagat, Speaker Joshua Kiptoo and Allan Kosgey, who is the son of former Cabinet minister Henry Kosgey.<\/p>\n<p>Others in the race are former Emgwen and Chesumei MP Elijah Lagat and Mr Antipas Tirop, a former staff of Kenya Pipeline Company.\u00a0Senator Samson Cherargei has neither declined nor confirmed his candidature.\n<\/p>\n<p>Political temperatures are already high with the aspirants taking advantage of any platform including burials, church events, weddings, and social media to sell their agenda.\n<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"L5Ck2GwZMaQ\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"News:Father and son in Nandi politics\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L5Ck2GwZMaQ?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wait and see<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p>It remains a wait-and-see if Sang, the country\u2019s second governor, will successfully defend his seat or be dethroned. Sang was elected\u00a0Nandi\u00a0Senator in 2013 and used his term to oversight Dr Lagat before ousting him in 2017.\n<\/p>\n<p>The county with six sub-counties &#8211; Mosop, Chesumei, Emgwen,\u00a0Nandi\u00a0Hills and Aldai is endowed with cash crops including tea, coffee and sugarcane.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>It is well-connected by road, close to Eldoret International Airport, and has developed educational and health institutions, and the electorate expects a good manager to transform the opportunities and boost livelihoods.\n<\/p>\n<p>But the county is currently split politically, with local legislators not seeing\u00a0eye\u00a0to\u00a0eye\u00a0with Sang, and no common meeting has been convened to deliberate on emerging development matters.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Sang believes \u2018political cartels\u2019 are funding his detractors.\u00a0In an interview, Sang told off his critics, saying they are focusing on obvious negatives of his administration without offering alternatives.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone\u00a0eyeing\u00a0my position is painting me black. Even for obvious things that are visible, they\u00a0have\u00a0to find fault so that they can fight me and sell their candidature,\u201d said Sang.\n<\/p>\n<p>He said despite the tense political situation at the national level and the Covid-19 pandemic, he improved key sectors, notably health, education, agriculture and infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am confident about the delivery of my government in ensuring every coin is put to the right use. I am asking my people to give me another opportunity to serve them,\u201d stated Sang, who is currently using the campaign slogan \u2018Winchit\u2019 (pulling together).\n<\/p>\n<p>And Kiptoo, a fierce critic of Sang, says he is confident of clinching the UDA ticket. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>Campaigning on \u2018Msema ukweli\u2019 (to say the truth) slogan, Kiptoo has gone round the county marketing his manifesto.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNandi\u00a0is suffering from failed devolution projects over the past five years, and it is now time to fix them. It is about taking leadership back to the people. It is about devolving further towards resources to guarantee performance,\u201d stated Kiptoo.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>Kiptoo said the county showed the way by electing youthful leaders are disappointed by their performance.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is apathy and frustrations in the people about young leaders because of spectacular failure by the county government,\u201d stated Kiptoo.\n<\/p>\n<p>He regretted that 10 years into devolution,\u00a0Nandi\u00a0still struggles with poor roads, lack of clean water and poor healthcare services.\n<\/p>\n<p>He said public health institutions lack basic drugs and equipment.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>Kiptoo said it is time to do undertake an audit and decentralise resources by allowing locals to identify their priority projects.\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Humble leader<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo governments\u00a0have\u00a0failed. I am making a promise to residents that I am a humble leader who will integrate them in governance,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Former MP Lagat is believes he is the best bet for the seat.\u00a0\u201cWe cannot watch as\u00a0Nandi\u00a0sinks into disrepute due to poor leadership,\u201d said Lagat.\n<\/p>\n<p>The former law maker served between 2007 and 2017. He claims credit for the establishment of Koitaleel University college, Kenya Medical Training Institute in Chesumei and a Sh 1.3 billion water project supported by Japan in Kapsabet town. \u201cI am coming in following a request by opinion leaders. That they want a candidate whose development efforts\u00a0have\u00a0been seen and who is aged above 50,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Former governor Dr Lagat is the latest entrant into the race. He declared his interest in a local vernacular FM radio station show recently.\n<\/p>\n<p>Dr Lagat points fingers at Sang for allegedly failing to complete projects he (Lagat) initiated.\n<\/p>\n<p>And Kosgey is endearing himself to the electorates through his Kalenjin slogan \u2013 \u2018Maloo Saboon\u2019 (bright future is dawning). He is making a debut in\u00a0Nandi\u00a0politics after his attempt for the Kesses parliamentary seat in Uasin Gishu failed at the Jubilee Party nomination in 2017.\n<\/p>\n<p>When reached for comment, calls and text messages went unanswered.\n<\/p>\n<p>Tirop, a financial expert, says he is doing groundwork and seeks to form an all-inclusive administration. \u201cWe\u00a0have\u00a0had five years of failed leadership under Dr Lagat and another under Sang. I will offer 10 years of good administration to boost education, health, agriculture, roads and address unemployment,\u201d said Tirop.\n<\/p>\n<p>Elly Chepkwony, a youth leader and a civil society official in Kabsabet said the\u00a0Nandi\u00a0governor race promises to be a tough one, but added that the youth vote could elude Governor Sang.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing by the mood on the ground, the youth feel that the governor did not fully appreciate their role when he succeeded Lagat. They feel the current administration hasn\u2019t fully addressed their needs and interests,\u201d Chepkwony said yesterday.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>He added that there were concerns that some crucial legislations were processed without public participation, prompting a recent meeting of stakeholders under the\u00a0Nandi\u00a0civil society forum which sought answers.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.standardmedia.co.ke\/article\/2001436661\/nandi-hopefuls-have-eyes-on-the-prize-ahead-of-uda-primaries\">Source: The Standard Media Kenya<\/a> <a \"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Nandi County Governor Stephen Sang. [Peter Ochieng, Standard] Nandi\u00a0has turned into a political battlefield as seasoned politicians and newcomers battle it out for the county\u2019s top seat.\u00a0 The race has been reduced to a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) affair, with five aspirants preparing to face off in the April primaries. The cut-throat competition for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":978464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3887],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-978463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kenya-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}