• He was responding to claims by Wamae, Wajackoyah's former running mate that the Roots Party flagbearer was paid to cause commotion during the debate.
• Wamae had made the claims in response to allegations by Ngunyi that the State funded Wajackoyah's manifesto launch in a bid to irritate President William Ruto.
Image: FILE
Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi has said that the State never paid Roots Party leader George Wajackoyah to participate in the July 26, 2022 presidential debate.
Ngunyi said Wajackoyah, largely considered a flinch presidential candidate in the August 9 polls, was 'difficult to buy'.
"Dear Justina Wamae this story is true. But Wajackoyah was a difficult man to buy. We did not pay him a cent to be part of the Presidential Debate," he said.
The political pundit was responding to claims by Wamae, Wajackoyah's former running mate, that the Roots Party flagbearer was paid to cause commotion during the debate at the Catholic University.
Wamae had made the claims in response to allegations by Ngunyi that the State funded Wajackoyah's manifesto launch purposely to irritate President William Ruto, then serving as the Deputy President.
“There is a bit Mutahi Ngunyi forgot to mention about the day of the debate. They had paid ‘him’ (Wajackoyah) to go cause drama during Presidential Candidate Ruto’s debate at Catholic University. But the stern warning by the organizers sent chills down ‘his’ spine akaogopa," read part of Wamae's tweet posted on Sunday.
During an interview with NTV, Ngunyi claimed the State funded Wajackoyah's manifesto launch to get under Ruto's nerve.
“We funded Wajackoyah’s (presidential candidate) launch. The way we did it, we wanted it to happen at the same time Ruto was doing his launch. I wanted to do this to irritate him (Ruto). He would not want to share that moment with someone on TV,” he said.
Wajackoyah denied the claims over the weekend terming them baseless and accused Ngunyi of using his name for personal gain.
"The remarks are baseless, unfounded and serve to insult our party. Roots Party is a national party and does not subscribe to tokenism, a field Mutahi Ngunyi holds a PHD in," he said in statement.
"We refuse to be used as an entry narrative in unholy political matrimony. For a man who survives by peddling false political conjectures, it is at least worrying that he will use our party to kneel before Ruto.”
Ngunyi on August 7 announced that he had ditched the opposition side and will henceforth be working with Ruto.
He previously worked as the political advisor to former President Uhuru Kenyatta during which time he said he had misjudged Ruto through a 'dynasty lens'.
During the debate, Wajackoyah had been paired with David Mwaure of the Agano Party in the first phase of the interview.
Ruto, the United Democratic Alliance candidate, was paired with Raila Odinga of the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Alliance but the ODM leader never showed up.
Wacjakoyah skipped the debate citing discrimination by the media saying he would only attend if all four candidates stood on the same podium.