KWAHERI: KALONZO MAKES U-TURN
Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka has revealed that his party submitted his name to the Azimio panel tasked with choosing Raila Odinga’s running mate.
Speaking to the media on Friday, May 6 at Taita Taveta County, Kalonzo confirmed that Wiper Secretary General submitted his nomination papers to the 7-member team.
“It is true that my Secretary-General submitted my nomination application to the panel yesterday (Thursday),” Kalonzo said when asked about Wiper nominating him.
His remarks come less than a day after he said that he would not attend any of the interviews by the Noah Wekesa-led committee.
Kalonzo said that he only needed to sit down with President Uhuru Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister and discuss the running mate issue.
However, the Wiper boss said that he had tremendous respect for the panel adding it was the people who were saying that the process was not for him.
“I have tremendous respect for the panel that has been appointed. But they should understand me. I am not arrogant and rude. It is the people who say that the process is not for me because I have been a vice president and a running mate two times,”
“With due respect, I won’t go for the interview. A political process is a political process. There is no need for an interview, let us sit with Uhuru and Raila and talk over the matter,” Kalonzo said at a rally in Machakos County.
Earlier, Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka revealed that he will not face the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya seven-member panel interviewing candidates for the position of running mate.
A defiant Musyoka told The Standard that he would not allow himself to be humiliated by subjecting himself to the process that is seeking to identify Raila Odinga’s running mate.
Odinga is the coalition’s presidential flag bearer.
“I want to
tell all Kenyans that I will not attend the said process. I find the entire thing demeaning to my person and will therefore distance myself from it,” he said.
Eight candidates including Musyoka have expressed to be Odinga’s deputy in the August polls.
Kenya Kwanza Alliance co-principal and Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula had on April 28, 2022 urged Musyoka to stop subjecting himself to “humiliation and ridicule” in his pursuit of the running mate position in the Azimio coalition.
The former Vice President has made it clear that “it will present a challenge if Odinga does not pick me (him) as his running mate” and criticized the panel’s efforts noting “that the panel will do all manner of things, conduct scientific opinion polls but we know the winning formula and so let us not beat around the bush.”
Those scheduled to be interviewed include: NARC Kenya Party Leader Martha Karua, Narc Party Leader Charity Ngilu, former Gatanga Member of Parliament Peter Kenneth, Governors Ali Hassan Joho (Mombasa), Lee Kinyanjui (Nakuru), Alfred Mutua (Machakos) and Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya.
Sourced from Kenyan report
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