Raila urges Bahati, Imran Okoth to drop political ambitions
Raila Odinga has urged politicians Imran Okoth and Kelvin ‘Bahati’ Kioko to shelve their respective parliamentary bids.
Odinga, who is gunning for the presidency in the August 2022 polls, made the statement during a campaign tour of Nairobi.
Okoth is vying as an Kibra consticuency as an Independent having lost in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) primaries, while Bahati is contesting in Mathare on a Jubilee ticket.
“I am requesting my son Imran to drop his bid and I will hold his hand. Let him allow Mwalimu (ODM candidate Peter Orero) to take over,” said Odinga.
During the primaries, Mr Orero garnered 3,422 votes while Mr Okoth managed to get 2,739 votes.
Mr Odinga said he was confident of beating Deputy President William Ruto in the polls.
“I will be working with Mr Okoth in my government and there is no need for him to be worried about it as I will give him a state appointment,” he said.
He further asked the electorate in Kibra to ensure that they adopt the six-piece voting strategy and ensure that all seats within the constituency go to ODM.
Mr Okoth became the Kibra MP in November 2019 after winning a by-election following the death of his brother Mr Ken Okoth.
Before he was voted as MP, Mr Okoth was the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) chairman.
The most recent opinion polls by Mizani Africa released on July 15, showed that Mr Orero would be voted by 37.3 percent of the voters while Mr Okoth took the second position with 33.3 percent.
The third position as per the polls will be taken by Mr McDonald Mariga of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) who will garner 19.6 percent of the votes.
Odinga has also promised to give Bahati a job should he conceede his political ambitions in favour of ODM’s Anthony Oluoch in Mathare.