Anthony Kibagendi, the former Director of Youth Affairs in the Office of Deputy President William Ruto, has revealed the strategy and tactic being employed by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in order to sweep county, senatorial and Gubernatorial seats in the 2022 General Election.
Speaking to the media on Monday, March 7, Kibagendi noted that the party was conducting many opinion polls to ensure only the strong candidates head to the nominations phase.
The former director noted that the UDA politicians, while campaigning for the DP, also interacted with Kenyans from different counties in a bid to listen to the candidates they preferred ahead of the polls.
Kibagendi affirmed that this is a strategy that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) brand is also relying ahead of the primaries to determine their strong candidates.
"I got to the top of the ladder in UDA only to realise that it was leaning on the wrong wall but I can tell you in there that they were doing a lot of opinion polls regularly to try and identify strong candidates."
"I believe it's the same thing that ODM is doing right now that beyond carrying out nominations, they should be able to tell the strong candidates through doing genuine and legitimate opinion polls that will guide them in the way they're going to move forward," Kibagendi stated.
In order to solve the problem whereby a candidate may feel left out, Kibagendi urged the party leaders to offer other opportunities within the party. This, according to Kibagendi, will avoid walkouts that characterize nominations.
"While they're going to work on negotiated democracy and use opinion polls, they should be able to convince people within the party that there are these other opportunities that are available for you and hence you can stick within the party and let us push this forward together," he stated.
Alluding to their working relationship with the DP, Kibagendi maintained that his efforts were crucial in building the UDA brand, particularly in the Kisii region. He added that accumulated frustrations within the party pushed him to decamp to the Azimio la Umoja movement led by the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
"Indeed I was very close with the DP and served as an advisor and we did build the UDA brand in Kenya specifically in Kisii where I was playing the role of shadow team leader.
"However, because of accumulated frustrations (individuals who have decided to bring down the energy and presence of the DP in Kisii region) and listening to the ground led to my shifting," he stated.
Kibagendi recently dumped DP Ruto and was welcomed by ODM party leader Raila Odinga to the Azimio movement. The politician will seek to succeed Richard Onyonka as the member of Parliament (MP) for the Kitutu Chache constituency on an Azimio ticket.
The incumbent, Onyonka, will not be defending his seat but will contest for the Kisii County senatorial position in the August 9 poll.
