Kirinyaga Woman Representative, Purity Wangui Ngirici, sent a message to Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader, Raila Odinga, causing a stir on social media.
On Thursday, January 6, Ngirici shared an early birthday message to Raila Odinga which attracted over 4,000 comments in less than an hour.
The message was received with mixed reactions on social media with Kenyans wondering if Ngirici was making a political statement days after exiting the United Democratic Movement (UDA), a party associated with Deputy President William Ruto.
Ngirici's supporters questioned whether her birthday message to Raila, a day before his actual birthday was a signal that the Woman Rep would be joining Azimio La Umoja.
"Happy 77th Birthday Jakom," Ngirici captioned a picture of Raila Odinga.
Ngirici announced her exit from UDA on December 23, 2021, while speaking to residents in the county. She emphasized that she will be vying for the gubernatorial seat in 2022 despite Governor Anne Waiguru joining the DP Ruto associated party.
The Women Rep maintained that she has no plans to leave the Kirinyaga seat and urged the people to vote for her even if she contests as an independent candidate.
She further advised the Kirinyaga electorate to vet politicians seeking votes in the August 9, 2022 polls and not to focus on the political parties being used by the individuals.
“Leaders attract followers, they don’t follow them. They attract them. I will be vying for the Kirinyaga County governor seat in the next year’s General Election. I would also like to remind those individuals joining different parties that the people of Kirinyaga will elect the person and not the party," Ngirici stated at the time.
UDA continues to suffer major blows in the vote-rich Mt Kenya region with Gatundu South MP, Moses Kuria, stating that he would not fold up his party to join the DP's party.
Kuria, in November 2021, disclosed that he cannot fold up his party, stating that such a mistake would be costly drawing lessons from the 2017 elections where more than 15 political parties merged to form the ruling Jubilee Party.
"I hope that an opportunity to work with the Deputy President will present itself at some point," noted Kuria at the time.
