OKA Vows to Field its Own Presidential Candidate in 2022 Poll

The One Kenya Alliance (OKA) has announced that it will field its own presidential candidate in the General Election scheduled for August 9, 2022.

OKA principals Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Musalia Mudavadi (Amani National Congress), Moses Wetangula (Ford Kenya) and Gideon Moi (KANU) said this on Tuesday after a two-day retreat at Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha, Nakuru County.

“As the ‘GREAT RIFT VALLEY DECLARATION’, we hereby unequivocally state that One Kenya Alliance will field a presidential candidate in next year’s general elections,” the principals said in a statement.

The flag bearer, the principals noted, will be announced in ‘due course’.

The principals were recently reported to be under pressure to support ODM leader Raila Odinga’s 2022 presidential bid.

All the four leaders met President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House in Mombasa last week where the Head of State reportedly insisted that they should back Odinga’s bid for the top seat as he has a better chance of beating his deputy William Ruto.

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It is said that President Kenyatta pressured the leaders to drop their bids in favour of the former Prime Minister who has been cooperating with the Jubilee administration since their March 9, 2018 handshake. But Kalonzo and Musalia are said to have rejected the proposal.

The leaders recently pulled out the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition that supported Odinga’s 2017 presidential bid citing frustrations from the ODM party.

During the Tuesday press conference, the OKA leaders criticized attempts by the Odinga-led party to oust Wafula Chebukati, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman.

“We support the independence of the electoral commission and we cannot afford to destabilize the IEBC a year to the elections. As the body mandated to oversee the elections, Kenyans are looking forward to a commission that will deliver free, fair, credible, and verifiable elections,” the leaders said.

A section of ODM leaders led by Homa Bay Woman Representative, Gladys Wanga, recently revealed plans to kick out Chebukati before the 2022 polls.

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Speaking during the burial of Mzee David Ajwang Nyakwamba, father of Ruaraka Member of Parliament TJ Kajwang and Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang, on Friday, August 13, Wanga said the party does not have faith in Chebukati following the nullification of the 2017 presidential election over illegalities and irregularities.

The OKA leaders further said they will respect the Court of Appeal ruling on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) set to be delivered on Friday, August 20.

“As an alliance that believes in the rule of law, we shall accept and respect the verdict of the courts. Irrespective of the outcome, we wish to restate that our resolve to be the leadership committed to seeing a one united Kenya,” they added.

The High Court had in May this year declared BBI unconstitutional, null and void. The BBI team led by the President challenged the ruling at the Appellate Court.

Read Also: Uhuru, Raila Formally File Appeal Against BBI Judgement

According to a ruling by judges Prof Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Jairus Ngaah, Teresia Matheka and Chacha Mwita, President Kenyatta had violated the constitution by initiating a process that ought to have been started by ordinary citizens “Wanjiku”.

“It is our finding that popular initiative is a power reserved for Wanjiku neither the president or any other state organ can utilize article 257 to amend the constitution. President cannot purport to directly initiate a constitutional amendment. He isn’t part of parliament. He has no power under the constitution to initiate changes under the constitution since parliament is the only state organ that can consider the effecting of constitutional changes. The president is not permitted to amend the constitution using popular initiative,” said the judges.

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