Pius Kinuthia: Raila’s “Boy” Vying for Murang’a Senatorial Seat

Pius Kinuthia is seeking to succeed Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata in the August 9 polls.

Kinuthia is running on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party which is led by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga.

Murang’a is predominantly a pro William Ruto area.

In the last elections, Raila who is vying for the presidency for the fifth time, garnered 9, 122 (1.03 per cent) votes against Uhuru Kenyatta’s 498, 248 votes.

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The votes translated to 98.61 per cent of the 587, 222 registered voters.

But Kinuthia is determined to prove otherwise in the polls that open in less than three weeks.

Raila fondly refers to him as “my boy” and he (Kinuthia) is proud to be the former prime minister’s “boy”.

He told the Nation that he has supported the ODM leader since 2002 because of his ideologies.

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“I became Odinga’s supporter in 2002 and his loyal soldier in 2005 during the referendum contest that we won. I settled on him owing to his ideologies, consistency, and dedication to democratisation of the country,” he said.

“I’m aware that this party has a bad rating in Murang’a due to past propaganda spread against it and Mr Odinga… but I want to change the way our people perceive issues, him [Odinga] and our politics. I want to show my people that the era of voting for parties is over. Let’s interrogate individuals and vote for them based on their agenda, not party affiliation.”

He claims that in order to stop him from promoting his agenda, he has faced hostility while campaigning, including being heckled and having his campaign posters vandalized.

“But with time, that scenario has changed as our people buy more into political tolerance and civility. I’m happy to report that nowadays I get good reception and people are freely giving me an opportunity to articulate my issues,” he said.

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He also states that candidates in the Azimio brigade are letting down their flagbearer.

Kinuthia says that the candidates do not preach the “Azimio gospel” but campaign for themselves in Raila’s absence.

“I don’t understand why Azimio candidates, especially from the Jubilee side, fear putting Odinga’s image on their posters.

“I fail to understand why they don’t openly campaign for him. They only do it when he and his running mate Martha Karua are on ground but when they leave, they resort to campaigning for themselves without mentioning Azimio, Odinga and Karua. We can’t go on like this and I urge them to boldly campaign for Odinga,” he said.

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Kinuthia will battle it out with Joe Nyutu (United Democratic Alliance), Kembi Gitura (Jubilee), Hellen Kigia (Farmers Party) and Ms Munoru Mwangi (Kanu).

Mr Nyutu and Ms Kigia are affiliated with Deputy President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Alliance while the other three support Raila.