Bishop Margaret Wanjiru has bowed out of the Nairobi gubernatorial race.
Wanjiru stepped down in favour of Senator Johnson Sakaja, a member of the Kenya Kwanza alliance.
Wanjiru - who contested for the same position unsuccessfully in 2017 - will seek the senatorial position on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket.
This was announced by Deputy President William Ruto on Saturday, April 9 at his Karen office after holding a consultative meeting with the two contestants and other Kenya Kwanza officials.
"This afternoon after intense and wide consultations over the last few weeks we will be fielding Johnson Sakaja as the Nairobi Gubernatorial candidate.
"She has accepted to drop her gubernatorial bid and instead go for the senatorial seat for the city. It is because of her courage that we have reached this consensus," Ruto announced.
According to Ruto, the Kenya Kwanza team is still consulting on the Deputy Governor position as well as that of the Woman Representative.
Ruto described Sakaja as a candidate who would address the challenges facing Nairobi county and its over four million residents.
Other candidates from the Kenya Kwanza alliance who had expressed interest in the Nairobi senatorial seat include Karen Nyamu and Roy Smith Mwita, popularly known as Rufftone.
Nyamu and Rufftone also agreed to drop their bids and back Sakaja and Wanjiru for the county's top seats.
The decision by Wanjiru is akin to that of Boni Khalwale who agreed to shelve his Kakamega gubernatorial aspirations and back Senator Cleophas Malala.
The decision allowed Khalwale to take another stab at the senatorial seat while Malala goes for the gubernatorial one.
"Being a student of the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa, I now want to announce to the people of my community that when you are a good player, you accept the position that the coach deploys you to.
"Today, I am pleased to announce that I have stepped up so that I focus more on the common agenda that covers our people. I am presenting myself as the candidate for the position of the Senator of the County of Kakamega," Khalwale stated at the time.
