- Savula said the issue of the coalition candidate will be settled within eight weeks, saying the alliance is already hitting the ground running.
- “We’re not against the perception of a two-horse race but the horses are either too old or a mule that cannot compete with horses,” he said.
Image: ONE KENYA ALLIANCE
One Kenya Alliance will use consensus to pick its flag bearer for 2022, ANC deputy party leader Ayub Savula has said.
Oka brings together ANC’s Musalia Mudavadi, Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Moses Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya) and Gideon Moi (Kanu). United Democratic Party leader Cyrus Jirongo has been appearing in Oka rallies lately.
Each party has cleared their own party leaders as flag bearers for the presidency.
The four will have to agree on which among them can best take on Deputy President William Ruto on the ODA ticket and ODM's Raila Odinga who will announce a new political grouping.
Odinga’s ODM is in coalition talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee faction.
Savula said the issue of the coalition candidate will be settled within eight weeks, adding that the alliance had already hit the ground running.
“We want to settle the matter through consensus. Once we are done with that, it will then be easy to deal with the issue of who will be the running mate,” he told the Star on the phone on Wednesday.
“In consensus discussions, it’s give and take. We are fronting party leader Musalia Mudavadi and he will have to also give either in percentages of positions,” he added.
Savula said that Mudavadi has already made up his minds to be on the ballot and those still thinking he will back them are daydreaming.
He said that Mt Kenya region was keen on the position of prime minister and the collapse of the Building Bridges Initiative project has triggered more confusion in the vote-rich region.
He said that President Uhuru Kenyatta was not forcing Oka principals to back Raila but was trying to convince them as the head of state.
“We’re not against the perception of a two-horse race but one of the horses isf either too old or a mule that cannot compete with horses,” he said.
Attempts by President Kenyatta to reunite the former Nasa principals behind Raila in 2022 have failed after several State House meetings between the top politicians.
Mudavadi last weekend said Oka principals were being coerced to back a certain candidate.
Speaking in Kakamega town on Friday, Mudavadi said that some of the principals were receiving phone calls asking them to act in a certain manner.
The insistence by the Oka chiefs that they must get to the ballot could change what has been perceived a two-horse race into a three-horse race.
Experts have said a third force will weaken Odinga who is preparing to make his fifth and probably final attempt to capture State Houseas they will eat into his traditional strongholds.
(Edited by V. Graham)