This archive report was first published on 2 September 2019.
McDonald Mariga, a football star, is among 16 aspirants who will face a panel of nine Jubilee election board members today in a bid to secure the party's ticket for the Kibra parliamentary seat.
The interviews come as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has set a deadline of tomorrow for the submission of candidates.
However, the process has been marred by tension, particularly between President Uhuru Kenyatta's allies and Deputy President William Ruto's backers.
According to sources, a majority of the 11-member National Elections Board (NEB) were allied to Ruto and were likely to influence the interviews.
NEB chairman Andrew Musangi has assured of a free and fair process, stating that they will remain neutral and not play into politics of affiliations.
"The board has 11 members but not everybody will be around. Two of our members have since said they will not be available. Our quorum is four members," Musangi said.
"As far as we are concerned, the body must be neutral. We are the referee and we cannot afford to play partisan politics. When somebody comes and says they are affiliated to so and so that is irrelevant to our exercise," he added.
Mariga, along with 15 other aspirants, including Morris Kinyanjui, Walter Trenk, and Ibrahim Said, will face off against each other for the Jubilee Party ticket.
Dr. Ruto's camp reportedly favors Mariga's candidature, claiming that their rivals in the ruling party had hatched a plot to field a weak candidate to help opposition leader Raila Odinga's ODM candidate win.
The ruling party's nominee will later face off with opposition leader Raila Odinga's ODM candidate, Amani National Congress's Eliud Owalo, among other parties in the by-election.
