NASA politician quits August Election

Nasa coalition has received a major blow after Kilifi County Wiper governor aspirant Gabriel Katana bowed out of the August race.

Katana has announced his move after he failed to be cleared by IEBC on Friday.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission declined to clear Prof Katana after he appeared as a candidate in two different political parties – the Vibrant Democratic Party of Kenya and the Wiper Democratic Movement.

While addressing Journalists at Kilifi Social Hall, the Pwani University lecturer claimed his failure to get clearance was politically instigated.

His exit from the race is a big relief to the incumbent Governor Amason Kingi who is defending his seat on an ODM ticket.

According to Katana for a very long time he had aspired to see change in Kilifi but its too bad that he will not be in the race.

“Kilifi people have for long aspired to see change in leadership. A leadership full of prudence and hope. Their hope was anchored in Gabriel Katana’s candidature but today I want to make it clear that I will not be in the race because I failed to get clearance from IEBC,” said Katana.

Prof Katana said he has never been a member of Vibrant Democratic Party and was shocked when he learnt that he belonged to two parties.

“I was informed by IEBC of the anomaly and started the process to deregister myself from Vibrant party on May 16. My running mate, Duncan Nyale, went to the party headquarters and we wrote to the office of the Registrar of Political Parties. Unfortunately I was deregistered from both parties and by Thursday I was trying to re-register in Wiper. The system was down and I could not get registered at the Registrar of Political Parties,” added Prof Katana.

In Kilifi County, four candidates have been cleared for the governorship race.

They are Amason Kingi (ODM), Kazungu Kambi (Kadu Asili), Gideon Munga’aro (Jubilee) and Benjamin Dadu (Amani National Congress).

Prof Katana said he will soon advice his supporters which candidate to support.

Early on Political analysts within Nasa circles feared that Prof Katana would give Mr Kingi a run for his money and an ensuing bruising battle would have split the Nasa votes and give an easy win to the Jubilee candidate, Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro.