Musician cum Politician Kelvin Kioko alias Bahati is overjoyed after the IEBC gazetted his name as a candidate in the 2022 general election. Bahati who is contesting for the Mathare Parliamentary seat has had a rough time. The musician troubles began after being denied a jubilee party ticket.

Bahati would later cry on live TV while addressing his remarks. After consultations with his Jubilee party, he was later issued with a nomination certificate. This didn’t seat well with the ODM party which considers Mathare their backyard.

According to the Azimio coalition agreement, Jubilee was supposed to field candidates in 8 constituencies in the city of Nairobi. ODM was supposed to field 8 candidates and the wiper party to filed on candidate. This zoning arrangement was to avoid coalition members from competing with each other.

However Jubilee has since broken that by issuing the “Mama” hit maker a ticket for the Mathare constituency. According to experts Bahati is poised to win with a small margin unseating the current MP Anthony Oluoch.

The Bribe

The ODM party had of late negotiated with their counterparts in Jubilee in what would see Bahati set down for Oluoch. However, the singer dismissed the calls and went on to accuse his competitors of offering him a 50 million bribe to set down.

The politician indicated that he rejected the offer and will not sell the people of Mathare. The race for Mathare is expected to be a fierce one since all the parties involved have been campaigning for the last 5 years. However what gives the musician leverage over his competitors is that he has close ties with the community having grown up in the area as an orphan.

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The musician joins a growing list of popular celebrities who are trying their luck in the year’s general election. It is still unclear whether they will be able to get into parliament.