Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka tells Nzioka Waita to step own for Wavinya Ndeti

Wiper Machakos governorship candidate Wavinya Ndeti. [File, Standard]

Wiper Democratic Movement Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka has promised to have Machakos Wiper governorship candidate Wavinya Ndeti and Chama Cha Uzalendo candidate Nzioka Waita agree on who should step down for whom.

This, as it was clear who his preferred candidate was.

Kalonzo was speaking during Azimio La Umoja Coalition public rally addressed by Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga at Masinga in Machakos County yesterday (Sunday).

He said that he would speak to Waita to step down for Wavinya since she is the most popular candidate on the ground.

He urged Waita not to emulate Kavaluku’s political strategies. [Kavaluku (Rabbit) is the nickname for the outgoing Governor Alfred Mutua in reference to his shifting and, at times, bewildering political moves].

Kalonzo said that Wavinya had performed very well in the past two general elections emerging second behind Governor Alfred Mutua and that if no agreement is reached, the seat might go to Kenya Kwanza Alliance.

“I will be reaching out to my sister Wavinya Ndeti and my brother Nzioka Waita so that they reach an agreement for one of them to go for the Machakos Governorship seat. We cannot afford to lose the Machakos governorship due to friendly fire,” said Kalonzo.

Wavinya served as Kathiani MP after being elected in the 2007 general election and served as an Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Youth Affairs. After losing to Mutua in the 2017 election, President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed her as the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Transport.

She resigned recently to run for Machakos governor.

Chama Cha Uzalendo  Machakos governorship candidate Nzioka Waita who Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka wants to step down in favour of his party's Wavinya Ndeti. [File, Standard]

Waita served as State House Chief of Staff and Head of Presidential Delivery Unit before resigning to vie for Machakos Governorship seat. He previously worked as Corporate Affairs Director at Safaricom Limited which he joined in 2001 as a legal officer.

The former Vice President said that the Wiper Democratic Party had fielded strong candidates for various seats in Machakos, Makueni and Kitui counties and would be leading talks among the Azimio Coalition parties to ensure that they identified the most popular candidates to run.

Kalonzo said that the Kamba nation needed to speak with one voice in order to have a formidable bargaining power should Azimio form the next government since he had carried out fruitful negotiations where community interests are well catered for.

He dismissed leaders from the Akamba community who were “misleading” the locals to support Kenya Kwanza Alliance which he said did not have any interests of the community.

He said the community would reap the rewards of supporting Azimio la Umoja coalition.

“We are going to sit down with candidates affiliated to Azimio la Umoja in our three counties so that we look into ways of approaching the next general election with the intention of winning as many seats as possible and not losing any to our rival coalition,” said Musyoka.