Residents of Starehe Constituency have vowed to elect EALA MP Simon Mbugua as their MP in 2022.
Speaking during a meeting of all traders from Starehe on Saturday afternoon in Muthurwa market, the residents said Mbugua is best placed to articulate their issues.
Led by Ayub Macharia, they said the current MP Charles Njaguar is not helping at all.
“Mbugua is a seasoned politician who has the peoples interests at heart. H e has been in Eastlands politics for long and will help us. Others won’t,” Macharia told the meeting.
During the meeting, the traders resolved to carry out a door-to-door campaign for Mbugua saying they will elect him on whichever party he vies on.
In July 2021, EALA MP Simon Mbugua shifted from Kamukunji Constituency and announced he will vie for the Starehe MP seat in 2022.
The MP said before the 2012 delimination of boundaries, his strong holds which included sections of Muthurwa Market, Gikomba Kwa Mbao, Solidarity area and parts of Majengo and Landi Mawe were in his Kamukunji constituency.
The areas were curved out by the IEBC and became parts of Starehe Constituency.
Mbugua was Kamukunji MP between 2008 and 2011.
He said Starehe constituency is occupied by businesspeople.
“Being a businessman, I am the best person to represent the people. The current MP Charles Kanyi Jaguar watched as businesspeople’s property was seized and burnt in the name of contrabands and counterfeits,” he said.
Mbugua said the local businesspeople approached him and asked him to vie for the seat so that he articulates their issues in parliament.
“Last week, I hosted a delegation from Marikit Market. I started business in Gikomba and I am aware of what affects the local community,” he said.
Mbugua said he will articulate the business community’s issues well and that Charles Kanyi aka Jaguar is simply a transition MP after long serving MP Maina Kamanda left the political scene.
“We need a serious person like me to represent the cosmopolitan constituency of Starehe as opposed to a comedian and an artist,” Mbugua said.
In June 2019, MP Charles Jaguar was arrested over alleged incitement.
The MP was accused of threatening to personally deport foreign traders from Nairobi
The then Nairobi police boss Philip Ndolo told local media that Jaguar was arrested for transporting youth to a Grogon building to take ownership of shops.
Jaguar has also been linked to the recent Gikomba fire after one of his aides was heard in a voice clip that has since gone viral about payment after torching the market.