Murang’a billionaire Jimmy Wanjigi has threatened to walk out of Raila Odinga’s party ahead of 2022 elections over what he termed as ‘unfair’ nomination rules.
Wanjigi who has been crisscrossing the country as he seeks to battle it out with ODM leader Raila Odinga for party presidential ticket said he has heavily invested in the ODM party and that he will leave with all his contributions.
“You cannot just leave like that. We have invested heavily in this party and we must be refunded,” Jimmy Wanjigi said as quoted by People Daily Digital.
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga last week rooted for either consensus or direct nominations of candidates ahead of ODM primaries.
“The party will employ four options to nominate it’s candidates. The first one is consensus when the delegates system will be the second option,” Raila said when he visited victims of the Kibra fire incident in Nairobi last week.
In what appeared the consensus method would lock him out of the presidential race, the businessman-cum- politician said it was wrong for the ODM party to adopt a consensus route for nominations when the party constitution stipulates that voters must be involved.
“The party constitution says the nominations are done through the delegate system and you cannot abdicate that,” Wanjigi said.
His resignation from the party would see Raila given a direct nomination to face off with Deputy President William Ruto and the One Kenya Alliance (OKA) for the top seat.
While the move would give Raila a humble time to fly the ODM flag, it could negativity affect his chances of winning in the event Wanjigi will decided to go for the top seat as an independent candidate.
Other than splitting ODM votes, the exit of Wanjigi who was among the main financiers of Raila Odinga in the 2017 General Election would negativity affect Raila’s campaign journey due to reduced funding.
