Kevin Odhiambo withdraws from presidential race

Kevin Odhiambo. He withdrew from the presidential race. [Stafford Ondego, Standard]

One of the independent presidential aspirants has quit the race citing the high threshold placed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for the top seat.

Kevin Odhiambo has written to the electoral commission withdrawing from the race.

in a press release, Odhiambo accused IEBC of being exclusionist and putting high clearance standards that bar some independent candidates.

"However, offering myself and my candidature to this noble course has not been easy. The hurdles placed by the IEBC made it too difficult for independent candidates to sustain meaningful campaigns in a state that has been held captive by a clique of a few economic and political elites," he said.

He said after soul searching, wide consultation, and putting a lot of issues into perspective he will now invest his time, resources, and energy to move across the 47 counties to support good leadership and democratic participation through civic education under his banner of Jitume Nation.

"I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the more than 70,000 Kenyans who signed to support my presidential candidature. Men and women who believed in Jitume Nation and went out to support what we have always believed in," he said.

The aspirant noted that his initiative supersedes political ambition and urged like-minded, non-political initiatives and civil society organisations to join him in ensuring that the voters are enlightened about good leadership ahead of the August 9 General Election.

Mr Odhiambo promised to ensure that good leaders are elected to have an impact on the millions of youths and persons living with disability who are directly reached by Jitume Nation through sensitisation.

"We will not relent and neither will waver in our spirit to address challenges that we face and seize the opportunities before us," he said.