Nairobi News

HashtagNewsWhat's Hot

Why Kalonzo has been locked out of presidential race


Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka will not be in the August 9 presidential race after the electoral commission locked him out on a technicality.

Mr Musyoka did not present the list of his supporters in the required Microsoft Excel sheet.

He is among the four political party candidates and nine independents who failed to satisfy IEBC’s strict demands of 48,000 supporters at least 24 counties, proper presentation of supporters’ names and copies of their national identity cards.

For Mr Musyoka, failure to clear the first hurdle marks the end of his short run for the presidency which began after he failed to get the Azimio running mate position.

Even before the revelation of his being locked out of the race by the IEBC, Mr Musyoka’s supporters and Wiper aspirants had been piling pressure on him to return to Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party and back the Raila Odinga-Martha Karua ticket.

He now has limited options as he can also not legally exit Azimio.

But he is walking a tightrope as he plans to rejoin Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party.

At the same time, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has cleared 16 candidates who will now present their nomination documents from today.

They list has nine political/coalition party hopefuls and seven independents.

Leading candidates Raila Odinga (Azimio la Umoja) and Deputy President William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance are among those cleared by the IEBC.

newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com