Nairobi governor seat aspirant Polycarp Igathe says he will not hold public rallies to woo city residents to vote for him on August 9.
The Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance Coalition flag-bearer says he will instead hold public participation forums to ensure the concerns of city dwellers are captured in his manifesto.
"My campaign is not about me that's why you are not going to see my face on billboards staring down at you," Igathe said.
Igathe will be deputised by former Kibwezi MP Philip Kaloki who is from the Kalonzo Musyoka-led Wiper Democratic Movement party.
The duo will vie on the Jubilee ticket under the Azimio caravan supporting Raila Odinga for the presidency.
Igathe said the public participation strategy is in line with his campaign slogan, Nairobi mwataka nini? (What do you want Nairobians) as he seeks to address the issues burdening the county.
"The manifestos I will collect from all of you will become documents we file on day one in the county integrated development plan," Igathe told the Star on Tuesday.
He dismissed campaigns that involve public rallies as nonsensical trivia of song and dance.
The career chief executive said his administration will focus on creating social impact in the county by elevating the status of informal settlements.
Igathe said it's about time the areas that have been slums since the colonial era grows into suburbs.
This, he said, will be in the form of improving access to quality healthcare for slum dwellers, access to clean toilets, sewer, clean water, security and lighting.
"We must all live in dignity. It cannot be that the dignity of living in the city of Nairobi still reflects a colonial era that it's Lavington, Karen, reserved for United Nations, development area called Runda (and) Nyari."
Igathe said improved services need to be taken to where the people who need them most are - the slums.
He said the services should be decentralized from the City hall to all the 85 wards within Nairobi where there are social halls, health centres, schools and public amenities.
"How we ended up bringing everybody to City Hall and creating gatekeepers there who can then be controlled, I don't know how we failed in that," Igathe said.
The Azimio gubernatorial candidate faces stiff competition from Kenya Kwanza's Johnson Sakaja at the August polls.
Sakaja on Tuesday named Absa Bank Kenya Ltd Chief Operating Officer James Njoroge Muchiri as his running mate.
