2007 Elections
Nyamweya picked to head President's campaign team
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- Published on Saturday, 01 December 2007 22:47
Mr Nyamweya, the PNU council secretary and Democratic Party secretary-general, had until this week been perceived as the self-imposed PNU spokesman. He will now be the link between the presidential campaign team and campaigns for the PNU parliamentary and civic candidates.
“I will be coordinating all these teams,” he said in an interview with Saturday Nation.
Mr Nyamweya had been cleared by the PNU elections board to run for the Nyaribari Masaba seat. But he pulled out of the race after the appointment by the PNU Council — the highest decision-making organ in the alliance. The council is chaired by President Kibaki.
State House comptroller
In 2002, Mr Matere Keriri had assumed a similar position after he lost the Narc nominations to Mr Daniel Karaba in Kerugoya/Kutus constituency, now known as Kirinyaga Central. He was later appointed State House comptroller in 2003.
Mr Nyaweya has lately been in the public eye making statements on behalf of PNU. He has maintained that parliamentary and civic candidates fielded by PNU affiliate parties without the consent of the PNU Council will not get any support from the alliance. The issue has generated heated debate.
Last week, the affected candidates met and resolved to seek audience with President Kibaki.
“Those saying they will go on their own are not with us. They are not part of our arrangement,” Mr Nyamweya said.
As the PNU Council secretary, Mr Nyamweya is an influential official.
At one time he was accused of trying to kill DP when he said that nomination certificates issued by the party directly to aspirants who did not go for the PNU primaries were invalid.
This put him on a collision course with his party chairman, Mr Joseph Munyao. A party’s Governing Council meeting was convened to overrule Mr Nyamweya’s decision. The Governing Council also recommend that he be expelled but the move failed.
Most of Mr Nyamweya’s statements reflect the thinking of the President and his close allies.
After the PNU joint primaries, the Council secretary singled out Safina whose leader is Mr Paul Muite, after party declined to take part in joint nominations.
The following week President Kibaki was in Othaya constituency to return his parliamentary nomination papers to ECK when the took the opportunity to parade PNU nominees and gave them a chance to address wananchi. He ignored the candidates of other partner parties. The First Lady Lucy also denounced Safina, questioning why it had fielded candidates to run against PNU nominees.
Even before the primaries, Mr Nyamweya was harsh in his criticism of Safina, which he often accused of going against the coalition’s rules.
There were several other parties like Shirikisho, New Ford Kenya and Ford People which had indicated that they would go it alone. And they were allowed to field candidates under special considerations.
Narc Kenya, Ford Kenya, Kanu and DP also flouted the PNU nomination rules by giving tickets to losers after the joint primaries.
UK-trained lawyer
Mr Nyamweya, a 52-year-old UK-trained lawyer, has been an active member of DP, which President Kibaki founded in 1991. His father, the late James Nyamweya, was among the DP founder members and a close friend of Mr Kibaki. “President Kibaki has been our close family friend. I have known him since my childhood,” says the DP secretary-general.
Mr Nyamweya is seen to have had a big hand in the formation of PNU. The executive officials of the party are his business associates. And they are from DP , a senior PNU partner. They include chairman Jasper Nyamboga, secretary-general Albert Kamau and treasurer Wycliff Apencha are his business associates.
“PNU only came about because of what Charity Ngilu (the Narc chairperson) did. It took us about one year to come up with the outfit. So we had to put people we trust,” he explained.
After Mrs Ngilu made it clear that she was not handing over Narc to be used as a re-election vehicle for the President, his allies held talks on how they could come up with another outfit similar to Narc.
The talks headed by Science and Technology minister Noah Wekesa involved several parties. Mr Nyamweya was one of the active members of the Wekesa group where he represented DP.
The group had proposed several names but the President and his allies settled on PNU. When President Kibaki was presenting his presidential nomination papers to ECK, Mr Nyamweya seconded him. The other three PNU officials were there since they are the alliance’s signatories.
After assuming power in December 2002, President Kibaki appointed Mr Nyamweya as the new managing director of Agriculture Finance Corporation but he quit the job after he was appointed as an ECK commissioner. He later declined the offer. “Such a position requires one to be impartial and I had interests in politics,” he said.
After Mr Nyamweya declined the ECK job, President Kibaki appointed him chairman of Kenya Film Commission. “I assumed this position until last year when I decided to quit to concentrate on politics,” Mr Nyamweya said.
