Kalonzo calls allies, set to make 'important announcement'

Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka is set to make a major announcement this morning hours after Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga unveils his running mate.

Wiper Kenya party last evening sent out invitations to its legislators for a morning meeting at the SKM Command Centre where Mr Musyoka is set to make the announcement. 

"You are invited by our party leader His Excellency Hon Kalonzo Musyoka to the SKM command center today morning 16th May,  2022 at 11am for an extremely important announcement. Please purpose to come," the invite sent by Robert Mbui, Wipers National Organizing Secretary reads in part.

This comes as the party is expected to head High Court today to seek to disband Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Political Party and rekindle his presidential bid, one of his lawyers and Makueni MP Daniel Maanzo revealed yesterday. 

Mr Musyoka, Narc Kenya party leader Martha Karua and former Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth are said to be the frontrunners in the race to become the running mate to the Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga. But the Wiper family feels that Mr Musyoka stands no chance of becoming Mr Odinga's presidential running mate. 

“We have been negotiating for days now and nothing much seems to come out of it. Mr Odinga seems very fixed in his quest against Mr Musyoka’s deputy presidency,” Mr Maanzo told reporters after Sunday service at JCC Wote in Makueni County. 

The second term MP is among Mr Musyoka’s loyalists who have intensified the push on Mr Odinga to pick the Wiper leader as his running mate unconditionally. Otherwise, Mr Maanzo and Kitui senator Enoch Wambua have announced an elaborate plan by the Wiper fraternity to have the party leader run as a presidential candidate under the One Kenya umbrella.

Speaking on the day Mr Musyoka stayed out of an Azimio la Umoja One Kenya rally in Nairobi, Mr Maanzo revealed the parties elaborate plan to disband the coalition and unveil Mr Musyoka as a third presidential candidate.

“We, as Wiper and Mr Musyoka’s lawyers, are approaching the High Court tomorrow morning first of all seeking to impeach the agreement of Azimio One Kenya. We shall be able to prove before the court that the Azimio One Kenya agreement is unconstitutional and as a result of that every party in Azimio One Kenya will go its own way,” Mr Maanzo said.

He added; "Mr Musyoka’s name had been properly presented before the IEBC as a presidential candidate even before the formation of Azimio One Kenya. That has not been withdrawn. We shall also have Mr Musyoka name a running mate tomorrow and be on the ballot paper as a presidential candidate."

An attempt by Nation to get a comment from Mr Wambua, who has been the face of Mr Musyoka’s allies who have been threatening to ditch Mr Odinga’s camp in protest if he does not pick Mr Musyoka as his running mate, did not bear fruit as his phone went unanswered.

But Mr Maanzo’s remarks excited a section of Mr Musyoka’s supporters who took to social media to celebrate his absence at the rally addressed by Mr Odinga at Kamukunji grounds in Nairobi. 

The move by the team led by Mr Maanzo follows incessant calls by Mr Musyoka on President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene in steadying the Azimio ship.

Addressing a rally in Taita Taveta County last Friday, Mr Musyoka insisted that he was the most suitable candidate to deputize Mr Odinga owing to his experience as a vice president and a diplomat.

He has on several occasions called for a fresh round of talks between himself, Mr Odinga and President Kenyatta as he escalated his bid for the Azimio deputy president position, a call he started a week ago.

“Instead of interviewing Kalonzo let us sit and dialogue among ourselves as brothers. We should ask ourselves, where are we going? Brothers, what is it? We have a nation to save from corruption. We have a nation ravaged by joblessness following the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said when he launched campaigns for Mike Sonko, the Wiper Mombasa governorship candidate.