Shebesh: Why talks on compromise Jubilee Nairobi candidate failed
Nairobi Woman representative Rachel Shebesh has opened up on the brinkmanship and unbridled ambitions that led to the collapse of talks to have a compromise Jubilee candidate for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat.
In an interview with Nairobi News on Friday, a resigned Ms Shebesh revealed that only nominated MP Johnson Sakaja had agreed to shelve his ambition for the seat in favour of his rivals.
Those who engaged in the talks for the Nairobi seat were Senator Mike Sonko, nominated MP Johnson Sakaja, Dagoretti MP Dennis Waweru and 2013 presidential candidate Peter Kenneth.
“lt is only Sakaja (nominated MP) who accepted to sacrifice. The rest refused,” Ms Shebesh said during a forum to issue cheques for women groups to invest in business.
Mr Sakaja opted out of the gubernatorial race on Thursday and presented nomination papers for the Senate seat.
NORMAL OCCURENCE
Ms Shebesh termed failure to strike a compromise during the talks as a normal occurrence in politics.
“You can try and it doesn’t work. It’s dynamics of politics,” she said.
“When people have hard positions and consensus can’t help, the only other way is to sort out through mwananchi, ” she added.
The Women Representative also allayed speculation that she had been promised a Cabinet position during the talks.
Ms Shebesh said she will defend her seat and that all Jubilee aspirants for Nairobi are willing to go to the nominations as a team and support those who will emerge as winners.
She expressed confidence the process will be free and fair.
“l will support whoever beats me in nominations,” Ms Shebesh said.
She said that their focus is now to deliver electiove positions in Nairobi County to Jubilee Party.
She said the Nairobi governor position is important for Jubilee because the county is the backbone of the country.
” Uhuru can’t be president when he doesn’t have a good working relationship with the county, ” Ms Shebesh said.