Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria has offered ODM leader Raila Odinga the 2022 presidential running mate slot.
Addressing journalists on Thursday, November 11, the presidential hopeful said his line-up with the former Prime Minister will be unbeatable if the opposition leader will agree to deputise him.
“I am looking for a running mate in the 2022 Presidential race and I am requesting Raila Odinga to take that offer,” Wa Iria said.
Wa Iria who is on his final term as a governor said he has enough numbers from the vote-rich Mt Kenya region and that he only needs someone who can give him the Luo votes to comfortably take over as the fifth President.
“If I have 12 million votes from Mount Kenya, and Raila adds 4 million from the Nyanza region, we will automatically be in the State House,” the governor stated.
According to the county boss, this is the only way President Uhuru Kenyatta’s handshake partner will have a chance to get to the State House after his previous failed attempts.
While calling other presidential hopefuls to shelve their ambitions and rally behind him, Wa Iria challenged Raila to immediately agree and take the offer.
“I have received information that my friend Raila will be in Gatura tomorrow. I want to ask him to announce that he has taken the offer,” he added.
The county boss said he wants to reverse the norm in which the running mate slot usually goes to those with few numbers as compared to the flag bearer.
This comes at a time when the all-time presidential aspirant Raila Odinga said he will officially announce his 2022 candidature on December 9.
Raila said that he has been “seeking views and preparing his soldiers” for the 2022 political battle against his opponents, whom he said have been campaigning for the longest time.
“We are going for a contest with people who started preparing a long time ago to the extent that they started bragging. But we said we will only declare our plans when ready; we have been preparing,” said Raila.
