Why Kakamega Governor Oparanya believes he is ripe for 2022 presidency

Buoyed by performance on his last term and what he calls an illustrious political career, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya plans to join the crowded race for presidency in 2022.

Mr Oparanya, in an exclusive interview with Sunday Standard, said he will however first seek his ODM party leader Raila Odinga’s blessings.

“I am going to the national table. I must now play national politics and I am ripe, having been an MP, a minister and a governor for two terms. Depending on what Raila tells me, I will be going for presidency,” he says.

The ODM deputy party leader now joins Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and his Kilifi Amason Kingi who have also declared interest in the State House race.

Keen on ensuring the Orange party remains strong he plans to work with Raila to lock the support base.

The former Planning minister claims that the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition was ‘dead like a dodo,’ and there was need to popularise it.

Failed to show up

Oparanya further alleges that the opposition coalition died on January 30th when the three NASA principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula failed to show up during Raila’s swearing in as the ‘People’s President.’

The Kakamega county boss was categorical that the opposition was living beyond its usefulness and should have dissolved as soon as it failed to win the election last year and the principals go back to the drawing board.

“Everywhere in the world, parties come together for a purpose. And that purpose is to get power. As soon as you lose that power, you have to go back to your houses and start restrategising,” Oparanya says.

He says that the individual parties should go back to the drawing board and chart their destinies afresh, make new realignments and bring on board new players who can deliver in 2022.

People are suffering

“Come next election, you have to look around and ask yourself who you can come together with to get power. This NASA has tended to sit together when they actually lost power. NASA should be dead by now,” he says.

He took a swipe at the other principals for always ‘hanging’ on Raila and blaming him for their political problems instead of charting their own paths.

“This matter of blaming Raila that he never told us about the meeting with Uhuru, but when he told them on the day he was going to be sworn in, where were they?

He says he supports the move by Raila to team up with President Kenyatta to stabilise the country.

“Those of us who are out there in the devolved units of government, we know how people are suffering. We need peace and economic growth so that we are able to harness our opportunities for the benefit of our people and not fighting every day,” he says.