President Uhuru Kenyatta has held a crisis meeting with ODM leader Raila Odinga and his Wiper counterpart Kalonzo Musyoka to quell rising tension within the Azimio-One Kenya coalition over the presidential running mate post.
As Raila races against time to beat the Thursday, April 28, deadline of presenting his running mate to IEBC, the Wiper leader has been pushing to be named former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s number two.
These demands, according to Raila and President Uhuru Kenyatta, might split the recently registered coalition ahead of the August 9, elections.
Kivumbi.co.ke understand the Head of State summoned Raila and Kalonzo on Monday, April 18, at around 5 pm where he led a meeting that lasted about three hours.
Kalonzo is said to have been summoned from his Wiper Party offices in Karen where he had been meeting his allies while Raila went straight to State House from Kasipu constituency where he had attended the burial of late Kenya’s ambassador to Qatar Paddy Ahenda.
While the finer details of the meeting remained scanty, sources intimated that the two-time running mate to Raila Odinga was reportedly told “to go slow” on his demands lest he breaks up the coalition.
Kalonzo has in the recent past been on warpath with Raila and his allies over being the Azimio’s number two, a position that had been ostensibly reserved for the Jubilee party and strictly someone from the vote-rich Mt Kenya region.
The former vice president has been describing himself as “the automatic candidate” insisting that ethnic background should not be used as a factor in picking Raila’s running mate.
Speaking at a church in South C on Sunday, April 17, Kalonzo said that even if tribal dynamics were to be considered, then he should be the one since he hails from Mt Kenya.
“Some people argue that the running mate must be a Kikuyu. I’m actually from the mountain. I went to school in Meru I speak a little bit of Meru so in truth, I am part of the mountain,” Kalonzo said.
