In a revelation that blew the lid open on some of the intrigues, infighting and mistrust that was unfolding in the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance Coalition Party in the run-up to the August poll, one of the main insiders is now coming out to speak.
Orange Democratic Movement party member Pius Kinuthia went public with a statement claiming that during the campaigns, they who were actually the true and loyal “soldiers” of Raila were thrown in the peripheries while pretenders, who have since bailed ship, were accorded all top honours. His statement read,
Mr. Kinuthia Pius.
@Belive_Kinuthia
During campaigns, those TRUE and LOYAL SOLDIERS of Baba who will NEVER abandon him were tossed aside and new entrants embraced. Now those new entrants have abandon the ship. THE TRUE and LOYAL soldiers bado wako na Baba.
Kinuthia, 33, whom then Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party presidential candidate Raila Odinga would fondly refer to as “my boy” has declared, in the past, he is proud to be Mr Odinga’s boy in every sense of the word, “being the man I’ve pledged political allegiance to since 2002”.
Contesting in a county where Mr Odinga garnered 9, 122 (1.03 per cent) votes in the 2017 presidential election against Uhuru Kenyatta who got 498, 248 (98.61 per cent) of the 587, 222 registered voters, the magnitude of Mr Kinuthia’s task became evident after he performed dismally in the concluded General Election.
“I became Odinga’s supporter in 2002 and his loyal soldier in 2005 during the referendum contest that we won. I settled on him owing to his ideologies, consistency, and dedication to democratisation of the country,” he said.
“I’m aware that this party has a bad rating in Murang’a due to past propaganda spread against it and Mr Odinga… but I want to change the way our people perceive issues, him [Odinga] and our politics. I want to show my people that the era of voting for parties is over. Let’s interrogate individuals and vote for them based on their agenda, not party affiliation.”
He would later confess that he has encountered hostility on the campaign trail—being heckled and his campaign posters vandalised—to prevent him from selling his agenda.
“But with time, that scenario has changed as our people buy more into political tolerance and civility. I’m happy to report that nowadays I get good reception and people are freely giving me an opportunity to articulate my issues,” he said.
He made headlines in the run-up to the poll after lamenting that other Azimio candidates were letting down Mr Odinga in the county.
“I don’t understand why Azimio candidates, especially from the Jubilee side, fear putting Odinga’s image on their posters.
“I fail to understand why they don’t openly campaign for him. They only do it when he and his running mate Martha Karua are on ground but when they leave, they resort to campaigning for themselves without mentioning Azimio, Odinga and Karua. We can’t go on like this and I urge them to boldly campaign for Odinga,” he said at the time.
Murang’a has 616,398 registered voters as per the latest Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) figures.
Ms Kigia has her roots in Gatanga but her teaching and gospel music occupations have seen her establish political cells across the county.
Ms Munoru hails from Kigumo constituency alongside Mr Kinuthia.
Kangema (52,002 voters) and Mathioya (58,102 voters) have no representatives hence they could decide the outcome of the polls.
For current information about Kenya, pandemic regulations, Real estate, credit and other companies offering loans to individuals and small businesses, healthcare and treatment information, always browse Kenyan Report.
