Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has once again highlighted the power struggle that emerged in Azimio's inner sanctum ahead of the 2022 General Election. Raila now says Azimio would have won all the key seats in Nairobi County had the party settled on a more competitive candidate.
While addressing a section of religious leaders at Westlands Primary School in Nairobi on Wednesday, Raila regretted backing corporate executive Polycarp Igathe as the party's Nairobi gubernatorial seat flag bearer.
Selecting Igathe, according to Raila, was a miscalculation that still haunts him to date. The decision to front Igathe to compete with incumbent governor Johnson Sakaja of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) was largely attributed to Azimio council chairperson, former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"We did not get the governor seat, not because we didn't have people, but the candidate we had was not the right one, and that is why,” Raila said.
“Because if we won senator, we won women rep, and we won the presidency, how then did we not win governor? We could have won by far," he added.
Prior to Azimio fronting Igathe for the seat, Raila asked his lieutenant and Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi to shelve his ambitions for the gubernatorial seat in favour of the corporate executive.
Wanyonyi, who was considered the best option to compete with UDA's Sakaja, was set to run on Raila's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party, still under the Azimio umbrella. However, Raila asked him to step down as the party toyed with endorsing him as Igathe's deputy.
In the end, Wanyonyi opted to seek his re-election as Wetlands MP, with Igathe settling on Wiper Party's Philip Kaloki as his running mate.
"I am the one regretting for telling Tim to leave the seat. And Tim was humble because I told him to go for the running mate, but he told me no. He told me to let him return to Westlands. Now we are focused ahead.”
According to Raila, the coalition's failure to clinch the Nairobi gubernatorial position was disappointing, arguing that the coalition could have easily clinched the county's top seat if a favourable candidate had been chosen.
Azimio won the other key seats in the county, with Edwin Sifuna elected as Senator and Esther Passaris retaining her Woman Representative seat.
Sifuna, who was among the attendees, lauded Tim Wanyonyi for relentlessly aiding his senatorial bid in the 2022 polls.
"Tim Wanyonyi helped me get a lot of votes here. There is nowhere in Westlands where Tim Wanyonyi did not rally for people to vote for me," Sifuna noted.
On his end, Wanyoyi blamed Ruto's government for withdrawing graft cases and urged the current administration to curb embezzlement of funds. He also vowed to reject the National Dialogue Committee's report if the bipartisan team fails to address the cost of living.
