Women pressure groups in KIlifi have issued their demands to the ODM gubernatorial aspirant to pick a female as the running mate in the August 2022 general elections in order to balance leadership gender in the county.
This follows a widely circulated allegation in the social media that the Kilifi governor aspirant Gedion Mung’aro through the ODM party has selected his former counterpart governor aspirant Jimmy Kahindi as his running mate.
They say they will not vote in the forthcoming August Polls if their demands of having a woman in the slot will not be considered.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, the women echoed their disappointment of disqualifying a number of female contestants in all the political seats in the county during the party primaries.
Winnie Santa Chivilla who was contesting for the Kaloleni Constituency parliamentary seat through the ODM party said she was left out in the primaries without considering the 2/3rd gender rule.
She now wants the gubernatorial aspirant Gedion Mng’aro to pick her as his running mate promising to work together with the governor in order fulfil the dreams of Kilifi county residents.
“The allegations going round that Mung’aro has selected Jimmy Kahindi as his running mate are false. We are asking Mung’aro not to betray Kilifi women while making his decisions as he promised”, Winnie said.
Kilifi Women representative independent aspirant Mary Luvuno said she will lead demonstrations if the ODM party will not consider a female as the governor’s running mate.
She said women have been neglected for the longest time and it is high time the leaders considered that women are equally important in leadership slots and society at large.
“It is disappointing that majority of the seats are being contested for by men. It only implies that women do not have a voice in Kilifi and that’s why we have woken up with one voice to demand for a woman to be selected as the deputy”, Luvuno said.
Kaloleni ward MCA independent aspirant Elina Mapenzi expressed her disappointment with the ODM party primaries for not considering women in the various slots in Kilifi.
She issued ultimatum to the ODM to consider the women’s plea if the party seeks to gain the women’s votes in the county.
“We insist that the Kilifi Deputy governor should be a female, precisely our preferred candidate Winnie Santa. We will not vote if our demands are not met and remember we hold a majority of the votes in this county”, Mapenzi said.
“We want the 2/3rd gender rule to be observed this time. We want our cries to be heard because if you decide otherwise, we will not vote for anyone in any political seat”, Huba Saddiq.
“The party primaries were so gender-biased such that Women were not given tickets. Those who were issued with the tickets were against our desires and therefore if Mung’aro will not select a woman as his running mate, we will not vote”, Salama Sammy.
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