Sonko picks Vivo CEO Polycarp Igathe as running mate

 

Polycarp Igathe, who resigned as the Vivo Energy Kenya managing director yesterday. [File, Standard]

Jubilee Party’s Nairobi governor candidate Mike Sonko has settled on Vivo Energy Managing Director Polycarp Igathe as his running mate.

Although Sonko has not formally spoken about the development, a picture of him and Mr Igathe at Vivo Energy offices was released to strategically communicate his intention. The senator is expected to formally name him soon.

Igathe resigned yesterday from Vivo Energy, which runs Shell petrol stations, to concentrate on the campaigns as he pairs up with Sonko to take on Governor Evans Kidero of Orange Democratic Movement party.

Signs that Jubilee and Sonko would pick a technocrat were evident last Sunday, when Igathe beat the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) deadline to submit his documents to the party’s headquarters in Pangani for onward submission to IEBC.

City politicians including Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru, former Starehe MP Margaret Wanjiru and Millicent Omanga were said to have been angling for the slot.

Assure residents

The party’s decision is said to have received the blessing of President Uhuru Kenyatta, especially because it serves to assure Nairobi residents with roots from Murang’a County who have traditionally influenced city politics.

Although Igathe currently has a rural home in Nyandarua, his father is from the famous Rwathia village in Murang’a that has produced several business moguls who claim a huge stake in the city business sector.

Jimnah Mbaru, John Gakuo, Raymond Matiba, James Kiyapi and Janet Ouko were some of the probable running mates Sonko was eyeing and had even posted on his Facebook page, asking Nairobians to nominate a potential candidate.

Igathe got the highest votes.

The University of Nairobi graduate has served in the past as the Kenya Association of Manufacturers chairman, managing and executive director of Haco Industries Kenya and director of Mercantile Insurance Company.

He was the Uchumi Supermarkets director from May 2015 to March 2016.

Pick a technocrat

Media interviews state that he got his first job in Australia working for Queensland Health as a finance officer.

After a year-and-a-half, he came back home and was hired by Coca-Cola where he worked until 2000, when he joined AfricaOnline as a sales and marketing manager before joining Kenya Breweries Ltd as sales operations manager and then as marketing manager.

The Nairobi senator has in the past insisted that he will only pick a technocrat to help him run the country’s capital should he unseat Dr Kidero in the August 8 polls.

Sonko beat former Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth and Ms Wanjiru in last month’s JP nominations after garnering 138,185 votes against Kenneth’s 62,504 and Wanjiru’s 7,654.

The corporate chief was in the news recently after a nasty confrontation with nominated Senator Paul Njoroge, who drew a gun and shot at him when he led a team from Vivo to repossess a Shell filling station run by the senator in Naivasha, Nakuru County.