Presidential aspirant Jimi Wanjigi on Wednesday took his grassroots campaigns to Nairobi where he met ODM party leaders to lobby for their support.
Wanjigi is expected to battle it out for the ODM presidential ticket with Raila Odinga and governors Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega) and Hassan Joho (Mombasa).
Raila is the ODM party leader with Oparanya and Joho as his deputies.
Wanjigi does not hold any position in the party but is a life member.
He told the Nairobi grassroots leaders that he was confident that the party’s internal mechanisms were sufficiently robust to ensure a fair nomination process.
Raila has been the ODM presidential candidate in 2007, 2013 and 2017.
The party constitution mandates the National Delegates Conference to nominate party candidates and pick a presidential flagbearer.
The NDC consists of delegates drawn from every ward across the country.
“We are ODM. We know the delegates and we have the numbers to defeat any candidate. We must show internal party democracy in ODM. We hope that sooner, rather than later, we will have the National Delegates Conference,” Wanjigi said.
He said he was ready to fight for the party ticket all the way to the nominations.
“Any of you in our sights, the time for change has come and that time is now. It is not tomorrow. This country needs change.”
The Nairobi grassroots leaders meeting under the banner of ‘Nairobi ni Sisi’ gifted Wanjigi a branded Honda N-Box vehicle as they promised to support his vote hunt throughout the the city.
Wanjigi has resolved to popularise ODM in Mt Kenya, Eastern and the Nairobi regions as he charts a path to becoming the orange party presidential flag bearer in next year's general election.
“The party constitution is clear that the delegates are the face of Kenya. We are popularising orange everywhere because we know we will get to Kasarani with a majority,” he said.
Wanjigi said that pre-independence heroes won political freedom from colonisers while Kenyans won their second liberation from oppressive one-party dictatorship by passing the 2010 Constitution.
“Those heroes delivered the nation to where it is today. We are at a different phase. This phase is called eonomic liberation. There’s no greater liberation than economic liberation. We had the first liberation at independence and a second liberation with the 2010 Constitution. Now is the time for an economic revolution and that cannot be delivered by yesterday’s warriors,” Wanjigi said.
The aspirant told the meeting that he is aiming at winning the support of the majority of delegates when ODM holds its national delegates conference later in the year.
Edited by P.O