NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 18- Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) presidential aspirant Jimmy Wanjigi has linked the Monday night raid at his office by police to politics.
Wanjigi, a city-based businessman cum politician, told Citizen TV that his woes started, once again, after he declared his interest to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta whose second and final term is ending on August 9, 2022.
Wanjigi is seeking to run on an ODM ticket, but he has to battle it out with the party leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
“Why are they uncomfortable with my candidature? he rhetorically asked.
According to Wanjigi, it is the police, who raided his Westlands office.
“They wanted me,” Wanjigi said. “They said that they want me to go and record a statement at the DCI headquarters.”
Over the weekend, Wanjigi vowed to fight for “democracy” in ODM, remarks he said might have irked ‘some people.’
“I speak nothing but the truth. We shall continue speaking the truth,” he said.
He decried what he termed as continued disrespect of the 2010 constitution, which he said guarantees Kenyans their human rights.
Like him, he said tens of Kenyans have undergone untold suffering during the tenure of President Kenyatta.
A similar raid happened at his office and home in Muthaiga in 2017, during a search for alleged illegal firearms.
“I tend to think it has everything to do with what I said over the weekend,” he said.
“They very clearly tried this in 2017 and they failed and everything they tried in court was overturned.”
Wanjigi has dismissed Odinga’s candidature, saying he was rightly placed to start “an economic liberation.”
According to Wanjigi, the former Prime Minister has done his role in “the second liberation of this country” and should not retire.
“It is our time,” he has said in the past.
Over the weekend, he said Kenyans should be very worried if he is denied his rights in ODM saying “they will be advertising themselves to us, on what they will do in future.”
Wanjigi however has an onerous task since Odinga has received major state backing, including the support of at least 30 governors.
Polls have also placed Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto- who is running on a United Democratic Alliance part, as the most preferred candidate for president.
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