‘You will lose your seat,’ Jubilee Jubilee warns MPs eyeing shift to Ruto camp

Members of the Azimio coalition have been advised by Jubilee Party Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni to remain in place and refrain from joining other parties in order to avoid losing their elected seats.
After visiting the party’s elected leaders on Thursday morning in Nakuru, he remarked that individuals who switched allegiances following the election had demonstrated that they “lacked leadership characteristics.”

He added that the House majority are unaffected by shifting at this time.
He then repeated allegations of rigging while discussing the recently concluded electoral process, claiming that it had occurred “on an industrial level.” He offered no evidence, though, to back up his accusations.

His remarks come only hours after Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja coalition was abandoned by the UDM party Ali Roba, the outgoing governor of Mandera, in favor of William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza. In last week’s election, UDM gained two governorships, seven seats in parliament, and at least 35 ward members, giving Dr. Ruto’s alliance a big boost.

However, according to the law, UDM is still under Azimio as a previous agreement states that they can only go in December.

In addition, 10 of the 12 independent MPs who were elected to the legislature have indicated that they will join Kenya Kwanza. A member of parliament who is elected independently of any political party must have left that party at least three months before to the election in order to be eligible to run.

Independent candidates have frequently allied with parties or coalitions that they either participated in during the nomination process or believe to be more ideologically compatible, despite the fact that they are by design forbidden from doing so.