Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has given the clearest indication yet that Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party is her preferred political outfit in the 2022 General Elections.
Addressing residents of Kirinyaga on Wednesday, Waiguru declared intentions to defend her seat amid speculations that she is eyeing a deputy president position.
She seemed to agree with their call to defend her seat on a UDA ticket.
The county boss had asked the crowd if they would re-elect her as governor and they responded in the affirmative.
Waiguru went ahead to ask the residents on which ticket she should seek re-election and they chanted UDA.
“If they ask me why I chose that party, I will tell them that the people of Kirinyaga picked it for me,” Waiguru said amid cheers from the crowd.
This comes days after she hinted at ditching the ruling Jubilee party.
Read: Waiguru Hints at Ditching Jubilee Party
In an interview with Citizen TV on September 9, the county chief said the party leadership had lost touch with the vote-rich region.
“If I ran today on a Jubilee ticket and someone else ran on a different party, even if people felt I had performed, it would be hard to convince them to vote for me,” she added.
“Jubilee has a lot of work in revamping the party and we need to do it fairly fast, revamping the party and resonating with the people. People need that emotional connection to the party.”
Since last month’s Court of Appeal ruling that stopped Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) ‘reggae’, Waiguru seems to have abandoned President Uhuru Kenyatta’s camp that is opposed to a Ruto presidency.
Also Read: Governor Waiguru Fights To Keep Kitusuru Home Following Eviction Notice Over Arrears
Recently, she made headlines after claiming that the state was behind recent summons by the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) following remarks that Mount Kenya needs to go to the drawing board and disinterest in the revival of BBI.
She alluded that the summons was nothing but a witch hunt by high-ranking officers keen to influence 2022 succession politics.
“Last time I said on BBI let me keep quiet a bit. I immediately, EACC raided my office. Recently I said am introspecting on the political way forward, and again immediately I get EACC summons complete with all the subtle threatening inflexibilities,” Waiguru lamented in a Facebook post.
Also Read: Waiguru Links Office Raid by EACC To BBI Remarks
“…and media alerts on an alleged payment of 52m (allocated by County Assembly – for a pending bill that was acquired in 2010, for subdivision, allocation and cadastral mapping of over 7000 acres of South Ngariama Settlement Scheme) Scheme) and which EACC knows has not even been paid!”
She posed, “Is it just coincidence, witch-hunt, or the usual attempt to shape narratives for 2022 succession politics?”
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