Okoth Obado announces 2022 presidential bid, says PDP not linked to Ruto

ODM leader Raila Odinga and Migori Governor Okoth Obado during the burial of former Ndhiwa MP Zablon Owigo Olang' in Sori on January 23, 2021. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Migori Governor Okoth Obado has declared his interest to vie for presidency come 2022 general election.

The governor who said the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is pro-Ruto, added that PDP is to field candidates in all positions across the country.

In April this year, the governor, indicated he will vie for the presidency, angering ODM supporters in a region where former Prime Minister Raila Odinga enjoys support.

On Wednesday, Obado defended his decamping from ODM to PDP, saying it is PDP that he first started with and people knew him through the same party after he left from being the chair of the defunct Kenya Sugar Board and ran for his first term.

The governor, who has been at loggerheads with ODM and its party leader, has been vehemently criticized for announcing that he had dumped the party in whose ticket he was elected in his second term.

Migori Governor Okoth Obado, September 9, 2020. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Speaking at a radio station, the governor noted that as a person going for a journey, he had to drop from the vehicle and go back to his former vehicle and should not be criticized about his move.

“These parties are like vehicles and I decided to take a break and alight from ODM and go back to my former party,” Obado said.

According to the governor, they were aiming at making the party great and that the party itself was independent of Deputy President William Ruto’s party.

“PDP is not in any way connected to Ruto,” he confirmed on radio, adding that they were only working on popularizing the party and had not been involved in demeaning another party as some of leaders were doing to his party.

The governor stated that he was still standing by the remarks he made about the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) days after it was passed in the county assembly.

He held that the BBI was still bad, saying that he had to attend the county assembly session when the bill was being discussed and passed because he wanted to know the contents of the bill.