Ruto Will Win If Opposition Picks Kalonzo as Flag Bearer - Jimi Wanjigi

Businessman and Safina Party leader Jimi Wanjigi has advised United Opposition against fronting Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka as its presidential candidate next year.

Speaking in a radio interview Sunday, June 21, Wanjigi observed that Kalonzo is uninspiring and innately lacks initiative to drive any meaningful political cause.  

He made the conclusion having worked with the Wiper leader in the late Raila Odinga's presidential campaign in 2017.

"Kalonzo is my friend, but I will be honest with you. He has been in the game for a while. I worked with him in 2017 when we were backing Raila, and, unfortunately, in my view, he is not the driver of anything," Wanjigi noted.  

According to him, Kalonzo has failed to build a political juggernaut that he could identify with to advance his agenda.

Wanjigi asserted that the Wiper leader failed to learn from the late Raila Odinga, who mastered Kenya's politics and the art of manoeuvring it.  

He suggested that Kalonzo cannot be politically consequential without the support of others, which makes him a feeble figure against serious contenders such as President William Ruto.  

"Kalonzo supported Raila in three elections, and yet you don't hear him have a voice in Raila's home turf, in Raila's constituency, or anywhere. Raila had a massive constituency, and it was not just his home ground. Kalonzo doesn't have a constituency there, it tells you that there must be some leadership vacuum in him," Wanjigi said.  

He therefore submitted that having Kalonzo as the opposition's flagbearer would be an easy run for Ruto.

Meanwhile, besides Kalonzo's candidature, Wanjigi argued that the opposition would lose owing to their campaign strategy.  

He noted the opposition is uniting on the basis of ethnic extractions at the expense of selling their agenda to Kenyans.

Wanjigi cautioned them against campaigning for power on grounds of origin, noting that Ruto will outsmart them in the same game.  

"William Ruto will win hands down if Kalonzo is the candidate. He will outsmart them. They should unify on an agenda. One term has a limit, because people don't know what is beyond one term. Sell beyond one term and you have a greater unifying factor. Otherwise Ruto will win very early in the morning. They are playing in Ruto's arena, he knows the game. Raila was good at it. He never talked tribalism. He sold his track record," he said.