Sonko denies claims he has withdrawn from gubernatorial race for Kenneth

dennis kibet

January 23, 2017 4:30 PM

The move by the senator followed an article written in the Standard that Kenneth would ultimately be the Jubilee candidate to square it off with the incumbent Evans Kidero.

Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko has come out strongly to refute claims that he had withdrawn from the Nairobi gubernatorial race and agreed to be Peter Kenneth’s running mate.

According to the article, Sonko is to either be Kenneth’s running mate in the Jubilee deal or defend his senatorial seat.

In the proposed “set up”, other contenders like Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, is set to be offered a cabinet secretary post, while Johnson Sakaja is set to take up a post on the Jubilee Secretariat to spearhead President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election campaign.

Joke of the year

However, in a Twitter post, Sonko termed the reports that he had stepped down as “the joke of the year”.

He urged his supporters in Team Nairobi and other Jubilee party members to ignore the propaganda which he said was aimed at confusing voters.

“I wish to assure my supporters that no such arrangement had been reached and I am fully prepared and ready to face any opponent during the Jubilee Party nominations,” Sonko said.

He insisted his respect and loyalty to the President remained intact and that Kenyatta had never in any given time endorsed any contender for the seat or any other elective post.

He warned that attempts to impose any leader on the electorate will not be tolerated and will only backfire and give Kidero another chance to take control of Nairobi.

Divided camps

The race for the Nairobi gubernatorial race in Jubilee Party has in recent weeks been split into two camps.

One of the camps is led by the former Gatanga legislator Peter Kenneth who has several Members of Parliament including influential Starehe MP Maina Kamanda, Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan, Nairobi Women’s Representative Racheal Shebesh and nominated Senator Beatrice Elachi.

The other camp led by Sonko has nominated MP Johnson Sakaja, Bishop Wanjiru and Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru.

The Sonko camp have termed Kenneth as an outsider and even claimed that he had bribed the Senator to step down for him.

However, Kenneth has denied the claims and warned that infighting among the contestants for the Jubilee Party ticket may cost them the seat.

President Kenyatta has also warned the leaders who have formed camps in the Nairobi Governor's seat contest to stop their wrangles otherwise they risk losing the seat come the August elections.

dennis kibet