Three presidential hopefuls step down to back Nyagah’s bid

Presidential aspirant Joseph Nyagah. (Photo: Edward Kiplimo, Standard)

Three presidential aspirants have dropped their bids to support former minister Joseph Nyagah.

Pete Ondeng, Eliud Muthiora and David Mwonga, who were vying as independent candidates, announced that they had dropped out of the August 8 contest to back Nyagah because his aspirations were similar to theirs.

“We have been talking and sharing our ideologies, and after realising we are all speaking the same language, we agreed there was no need of us all contesting. We have instead opted for Nyagah, who we feel has the experience and the ability to carry our aspirations in leading the country,” said Muthiora on Friday evening.

The withdrawal of the three came at a time when the High Court ruled that independent candidates could collect signatures, including from voters who are members of political parties. The IEBC had said the aspirants could only collect signatures from people not registered to any political party.

Nyagah, while accepting the support of the three aspirants, hailed the High Court ruling, terming it a major victory.

The former Gachoka MP said he will push on with the campaigns as an independent candidate, saying Kenyans were tired of the political rhetorics of party formations that did not offer solutions to their problems.

“We must move away from the old order of powerful political parties fighting for power for the sake of only swapping positions, but once in leadership perpetrate the same ills that their predecessors were fought for,” said Nyagah.