NAIROBI Kenya, Oct 11 – Deputy Minority Leader in the National Assembly Jakoyo Midiwo now says ODM has not lost any ground after former Starehe Member of Parliament Bishop Margaret Wanjiru quit the party.
Midiwo says Wanjiru was only in the Orange Democratic Movement party to achieve personal goals.
Speaking to Capital FM News, Midiwo said the party is still strong in Nairobi as well as other areas in the country.
“What? Was she ever in ODM? We know these things, she was not,” he stated.
The legislator added that “it was good riddance” for Wanjiru to leave the party. “She has achieved what she wanted,” he said.
Bishop Wanjiru broke the news on Friday when she announced that she left the Raila Odinga-led party after she was denied the opportunity to vie for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat during the last General Election.
“My son the Member of Parliament for Mathare Constituency Stephen Kariuki is in ODM but Bishop Margaret Wanjiru left ODM long time ago,” she stated.
The former legislator tried to vie for the seat on an ODM ticket but was disqualified after it emerged that her degree was not recognised and accused the party of doing nothing to save her situation.
“After what they did against me, I decided enough is enough and I can tell you the way it is even within the 47 counties… there is not a single Governor as a woman,” she affirmed.
“That’s why they dropped me, so that I cannot make the first one.”
Wanjiru, who has been out of the limelight since the elections, spoke to journalists at St Paul’s University, where she graduated with a degree in leadership and management.
Bishop Wanjiru was disqualified by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) from vying for the gubernatorial post on January 17, 2013.
Wanjiru was disqualified on account of holding a degree not recognised in Kenya as Section 22 of the Elections Act 2011 stipulates.
“The commission for Higher Education confirmed that they do not recognise her certificates and we could therefore not allow her to contest for the position of Governor,” the then ODM elections board chairman Franklin Bett said.
Wanjiru had defended her Doctor of Theology degree from Vineyard Harvester Bible College and Bachelor’s degree in Christian Leadership from United Graduate College.
-capitalfm.co.ke
