Even as the Orange Democratic Movement party continues to find fault with the governance of the Ruto administration, the latest frontline being the tribunal that the president appointed to probe the Cherera 4, one of Raila Odinga’s most ardent allies is raising eyebrows.
Murang’a senatorial seat aspirant in the 2022 poll Pius Kinuthia took to Twitter to confess that of all the Cabinet Secretaries appointed by president William Ruto, he has a soft spot for the Interior CS Kithure Kindiki because, much as he’s soft spoken, he’s firm to a fault. His tweet read,
Mr. Kinuthia Pius.
@Belive_Kinuthia
This is the ONLY CS I have strong Faith in. CS Kithure Kindiki is soft spoken but very firm.
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.
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