Deputy President William Ruto‘s party (UDA) has denied claims by Kirinyaga Woman Rep Wangui Ngirici that it asked her to drop her 2022 gubernatorial aspirations.
While officially announcing her exit on Thursday, December 30, the Kirinyaga Woman Rep said she was summoned at the party headquarters where she was told not to compete with Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru calling her to go for the Mwea parliamentary seat.
“When I appeared at the headquarters, the officials tried to convince me to give up my gubernatorial ambitions and vie for the Mwea parliamentary seat on a UDA ticket. I refused, as they were determined to kill my dream,” Ngirici said.
But UDA Secretary-General Veronica Maina told the Daily Nation that the party did not summon Ngirici to shelve her gubernatorial ambitions in favor of incumbent Governor Anne Waiguru.
She said,
the party on which Ruto has said he will use to vie for the presidency in 2022, was keen to conduct free and fair nominations ahead of the August 9 General Election.
“We have not summoned any aspirant to the headquarters. Our party does not believe in undemocratic summoning processes,” Maina said.
While dismissing assertions that some candidates were being asked to step down for others, Maina said the Hustler party was determined to give every aspirant a fair chance at the nominations.
“The UDA party is committed to conducting free and fair nominations,” she said.
This was after Ngirici warned aspirants eying various seats on a UDA ticket in the August 9 General Election to watch out telling them to expect unfair nominations.
“If UDA officials are telling me to vie for a junior seat, do you expect nominations to be free and fair?” Ngirici asked a gathering in Gakuyu.
Both Waiguru and Ngirici were eying the Kirinyaga UDA ticket but Ngirici has since vowed to give the incumbent a run for her money on an independent ticket.
