- Wanjigi said his choice will represent the challenges the country is facing currently.
- He expressed confidence that he will prevail as a presidential candidate and dismissed claims the race is two-horsed.
Image: Alice Waithera
Presidential candidate Jimi Wanjigi has said he will announce his running mate on May 16, the IEBC deadline for doing so.
Last week, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission extended the dates for submission of running mates from April 28 to May 16 after meeting with political parties.
While declining to give a clue on which region he will draw his running mate from, Wanjigi said his choice will represent the current crisis facing the country.
“I am very clear on my choice for a running mate and I am keeping my card close to my chest but I can tell you that my choice will be a clear picture of the kind of challenges we are facing in this nation,” he said.
The presidential hopeful said the country is currently plagued by an economic crisis that has left many Kenyans struggling to put food on the table.
Such, he said, are the discussions Kenyans should be having in order to find the solutions to their challenges and the people that can help implement them.
While addressing a church gathering at ACK Wahundura in Mathioya, Murang’a on Sunday, Wanjigi dismissed claims the race to the State House is two-horsed, expressing confidence that he will prevail in the elections.
He said his opponents are hell bent on bringing together tribal leaders in order to pool numbers, dismissing both Azimio la Umoja and Kenya Kwanza alliances as selfish outfits aimed at serving the interests of a few.
He expressed confidence that no one will win the presidential elections in the first round saying his campaigns will split the votes and force a second round.
“I am doing it different. I represent a system of thinking that is breaking the shackles of Kenyans being controlled by a few.”
“It is time to say enough is enough and bring like-minded Kenyans together, I am sure that I am the insurgent candidate, the one that will spoil it all because it’s going to be near impossible for anybody to win in first round unless we have a rigged election,” he said.
Wanjigi is intent on starting a conversation in the Mt Kenya region on the issues Kenyans are facing as a way of stirring a change of mind.
He said the region has been the bedroom of liberation struggles saying it is unfortunate that residents had decided to play second fiddle and support other candidates this time.
He however said there is an even bigger liberation that is brewing and is meant to liberate Kenyans from the yoke of poor leadership that has disproportionally disenfranchised majority of them.
“As a region we can’t sit back because nobody is going to give us anything. It is not anyone’s to give. We are the ones that put in this regime and we will be the ones to change it,” he said.
Wanjigi said it is sad that as the country celebrated Labour Day, over 5.4 million Kenyans are jobless, saying this has created an economic and social crisis that will be faced over the next few years.
“I want to tell Kenyans, this is your liberation. Come out clearly in August and make it about yourself and not the few who have. Its time to take your liberation into your own hands because I know majority of the jobless are in the younger population.”
He further claimed President Uhuru Kenyatta created Azimio La Umoja alliance to try and extend his rule.
A president’s term limit is clearly stipulated in the constitution, he said, adding that Uhuru should leave as peacefully as his predecessor Mwai Kibaki did saying his attempts to stay in power are illegal.
Kibaki, he said, left power quietly and stayed away.
“We buried a great man on Saturday, a statesman and hero who found us in a bad state as a nation and he left us better off. Today, the economy that Uhuru inherited is worse off and that is his scorecard.”