ODM party must hold fair presidential nominations, says Wanjigi

Jimmy Wanjigi at the Cathedral of St Peters' Mbeere, Siakago in Mbeere North, Embu County, on September 4, 2021. [Muriithi Mugo, Standard]

Businessman Jimmy Wanjigi has said he will not allow the ODM party to conduct its presidential nomination irregularly.

"I am an ODM life member and fully aware of the methods by which the party may arrive at its presidential flag-bearer. I wish to remind my colleagues that the ODM party constitution lays it out very well in Article 6 that all national officials other than the secretary for parliamentary affairs, secretary for women affairs, secretary for youth affairs, and the executive director shall be elected by the National Delegates Conference," said Wanjigi. 

Wanjigi noted that the ODM constitution also provides that all national officials shall hold office for a term of five years. 

"The same Article 6 provides that where an office is contested by more than one candidate, the vote shall be decided by a simple majority," he added.

He said the secretary-general (SG) admitted to having received two applications from party members wishing to contest for the presidential ticket.

Wanjigi said he was only demanding that the spirit and the letter of the democratic tenets secured in the party constitution be followed to the letter.

"I fail to understand what the SG finds difficult with that. In any event, the party leader, one of Kenya’s foremost democrats, has himself said that the party nominations must be free and fair and be seen by everyone to be free and fair," he said.

He also faulted the SG Edwin Sifuna for failing to announce primaries at the branch level in one daily newspaper of national circulation and one digital outlet as required by Rule 7 of the ODM nomination rules.

"I chose to become an ODM life member conscientiously. I believe that ODM has the best internal structures for a democratic run. I also believe that the party needs to be re-invigorated and popularised across the nation so that it can comfortably win the next elections and form the government in August 2022," he said.

He vowed not to relent from his demand for a democratic, people-driven, process within the party so that it can face competitors as one solid force, and vowed to continue to popularising the party.

Wanjigi said the goal of his candidature for the party ticket was to support the party in enhancing internal democracy in a more transparent, accountable, and people-driven process.

He also opined that the 2022 politics need a new crop of leaders who were not involved in the first and second liberation, saying the current generation required an economic revolution that would bring food to the table of every Kenyan.