By Wambua Kavila

Despite being a fringe party in Ukambani politics nationally, Maendeleo Chap Chap outfit belonging to former Machakos governor Alfred Mutua made ripples locally.

The party shocked political pundits and secured 12 seats in the county assembly out of the 40 in Mutua’s Machakos backyard.

Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper party ran away with half the seats,20, while UDA managed 4 and the remaining four went to independents.

In effect, this translates to Wiper controlling majority while Mutua’s MCCP will take up the minority leader position, only plaining put the opposition wing.

Mutua aggressively campaigned in Machakos when he shifted to Kenya Kwanza after leaving Azimio la Umoja when Kalonzo joined the outfit, signifying a move to go against the Ukambani kingpin.

In a mash-up at the Machakos county it played out as Raila got 304,830 votes while Ruto settled for 101,437 votes which showed Mutua had an impact.

Words in Ukambani say that Mutua may be elated to the deputy prime minister post attached with the roads and infrastructure portfolio or have impact on who in the region may join the government.

As assemblies prepare to swear in MCAs across the county, among key figures will be MCCP’s Mua MCA Francis Ngunga wa Ngunga who was a former Majority Leader who fell out with Kalonzo and Wiper and was propped up by Mutua.

County assemblies are an extremely crucial cog in the running of county affairs as all bills pertaining to the running of county business has to be passed by the assembly (including budgets) before approval and subsequent disbursement of funds.

It is a known fact that one of reasons why Charity Ngilu chose not to seek re-election was because in her full five year term, belligerent wiper members who dominated the assembly literally shot down all bills from the executive including budgets causing several delays in capital flow portraying the county government as dysfunctional and inept.