Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka addresses journalists on January 25, 2016
at the party's headquarters soon after a meeting with grassroots
coordinators from the 47 counties. He said he was confident he will
clinch the presidency in 2017. PHOTO | COURTESY
Wiper Democratic Movement leader Kalonzo Musyoka has said he is
confident that he will win the presidency during the next elections when
an estimated 22 million Kenyan voters are expected to cast their
ballots on August 8, 2017.
Speaking Monday at Wiper
offices when he met the party's grassroots co-ordinators from all the 47
counties, Mr Musyoka said the strength of any party lay with the people
and that the grassroots leaders played a critical role in delivering
the party leadership’s message to the masses.
“I will
be coming to your places very soon as I roll out my presidential plan.
You play a vital role as our ambassadors at the grassroots which we
really appreciate,” Mr Musyoka told the leaders.
The
Wiper leaders promised to do their best to popularise the party and make
it vibrant in the grassroots, adding that they will be coordinating
committees to revamp the party.
Mr Musyoka was
accompanied by the party’s Secretary-General Hassan Omar, Organising
Secretary Robert Mbui and Deputy Secretary-General Judith Sijeny.
At
the same time, Mr Musyoka reiterated his earlier demand for the removal
of the Registrar of Persons saying he had reached his retirement age
but had been retained in the position by the Jubilee administration in
unclear circumstances.
The Wiper leader said the
continued stay in office of registrar was strategy by Jubilee to rig the
next elections by frustrating the quest by Kenyans to acquire Identity
cards and eventually register as voters.
STRATEGIC WITHDRAWAL FROM SOMALIA
He at the same time called for a strategic withdrawal of Kenyan troops from Somalia.
His
sentiments come following the recent attack by Al-Shabaab on a KDF camp
in El-Adde, Somalia which left an unknown number of Kenyan soldiers
dead and others injured.
“We need to have a strategic
withdrawal of our troops from Somalia. This is not an act of cowardice
but for the interest of the nation, we cannot fight an amorphous army
and win,” said Mr Musyoka.
He urged the government to
give more details of what happened in El-Adde to defuse tension and
speculation leading to unnecessary arrests.
Senator
Omar also exuded confidence that Wiper would will produce a presidential
candidate and the next president of Kenya come 2017 and encouraged the
grassroots leaders to be steadfast in the party.
Mr Omar said recent actions by the Jubilee administration to arrest bloggers over some posts on social media was unfair.
ENCOURAGED BLOGGERS
“We
want to encourage the bloggers and media to be strong in the face of
adversity. Cord moved to court to stop the draconian laws which were
made to infringe on media freedom,” said Mr Omar.
On
Sunday, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations
grilled blogger and former NTV journalist Yassin Juma over what he had
been posting on the social media about El-Adde attack.
Mr
Juma was on Monday taken to Kiambu Law Courts but was returned to
Muthaiga Police Station, where he was being held after arrest, without
any charges being preferred on him. He was later released.
Last
week, a man was charged in a Kiambu court for posting on social media
pictures allegedly showing the bodies of KDF soldiers killed in the
Al-Shabaab attack in Somalia
0 comments:
Post a Comment