78 ditch UPND in Ikeleng’i

ABOUT 78 members of the United Party for National Development (UPND) in Mwilombi ward of Ikeleng’i have ditched the opposition party and joined the ruling Patriotic Front.

The defectors include some ward officials.

Leading the defectors, former UPND ward secretary Peter Kamau said they have decided to join the ruling party because the opposition has no future.

“The UPND has lost direction and I can foresee a situation where it will remain a shell by 2021,” Mr Kamau said.

He also accused Member of Parliament Elijah Muchima of being an absentee MP. He said the people of Ikelen’gi had regretted voting for the opposition MP. “We have never seen him not even once from the time we voted for him in 2016,” he said.

Mr Kamau also cited the ruling party’s development agenda for the district and the province as a whole as the reason for their defection.

He said Ikeleng’i has received a fair share in terms of development. Mr Kamau said some of the notable achievements of the Patriotic Front (PF) Government were the social cash transfer scheme, the timely distribution of agriculture inputs, connection of the district to the national electricity grid and the construction of the first boarding secondary school. “For the first time in the history of Kaleni Mission Hospital, Government has deployed three medical doctors, which is a plus for us,” he said.

He pledged to work hard and bring more new members to the PF And receiving the defectors, constituency chairman Godfrey Machipisha urged the new members to feel free and work with all the leaders in party structures.