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| Kariobangi Politician Peter Gathuita. |
A Kariobangi politician is struggling to assure supporters that his promises can be relied upon after a promised and hyped identification card issuance exercise failed to materialise. Peter Gathuita, alias Ndicho, spent the last week mobilising Kariobangi North residents to turn up for an open ID application exercise at Kariobangi Social Hall.
The exercise was scheduled to run for four days consecutively starting July 26 through July 29. But Mr Gathuita sent out a message at the weekend saying that the open ID application exercise had aborted.
“Hello my good friends of Kariobangi North Community. Am saddened to announce the postponement of our scheduled field ID application exercise dated 26th - 29th of this month,” he said.
But the politician appeared to blame some unnamed people for the botched ID issuance exercise.
“This is due to unclear reasons from the relevant administrative organs which aborted our exercise in last minutes but we believe someone somewhere is behind the blockage of our efforts to bring the exercise to our community. Let him/her know that this exercise was purely non-partisan regardless of tribe, religion, party or any other selfish reason,” he added.
Keep hope alive
Though this week’s exercise has failed to take off as planned, Mr Gathuita hinted that the exercise would take place at a later date, which was not specified. He reiterated his week-long call on the residents of Kariobangi North who do not have their national ID cards to stay alert for a new date for the open ID application exercise to be announced in the future.
Mass ID application
In mass ID application exercise such as the one that Mr Gathuita had promised Kariobangi residents, local leaders make arrangements with officials at the Registration of Persons to bring their services to the open. The exercise usually provides an opportunity for the disabled and those who cannot find time to go to registration offices to apply for ID cards closer to where they stay.
For politicians, mass ID card application exercise provides an opportunity to lay the ground for vote hunt once the campaigns begin. A national ID card is a vital voter document because you cannot participate in a national voting exercise such as the election of Member of County Assembly (MCA), Member of Parliament (MP) or President without it. The national ID card is also requirement in job application.
Battle for Kariobangi North MCA seat
Mr Gathuita has expressed interest in vying for Kariobangi North MCA seat in the 2017 General Election. He is hoping to unseat the current area MCA Michael Wainaina Wanjiku, who was elected on The National Alliance (TNA) ticket. TNA is in the process of merging with other parties to create a stronger political force known as Jubilee Alliance. Mr Gathuita will be seeking the Jubilee Party ticket to go into the general election.
Kariobangi North is one of the four wards in Embakasi North Constituency. In the March 2013 General Election, TNA won three MCA seats in the constituency namely Kariobangi North (Michael Wainaina), Dandora 1 (Peter Wanyoike), Dandora 2 (Stephen Kambi) and Dandora 3 (Charles Thuo). Orange Democratic Party (ODM) candidate Daniel Oria won the Dandora 4 MCA seat.