Raila Odinga asks Bahati to drop Mathare bid, Imran Okoth to drop Kibra MP race

ODM leader and Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition presidential Aspirant Raila Odinga has asked Independent candidate Imran Okoth to step down from the Kibra MP race.

Odinga was speaking during a rally in the constituency on Sunday. He asked Imran – who lost in the ODM primaries held in April – to drop his bid and support the party’s candidate, Peter Ochieng Orero.

“I want you to tell my son Imran that I will hold his hand. Let him leave here for Mwalimu (Peter Ochieng) to come in,” Raila said.

He further promised the first-term MP that he will be assimilated into the Azimio government if the coalition wins in the August 2022 polls.I will be with Imran in the government.”

The Kibra MP took office on an ODM ticket in a by-election in 2019. This was after his brother, Ken Okoth, who was the area’s Member of Parliament succumbed to cancer.

In his tour of Nairobi region on Sunday, Raila seemed to be putting the Azimio house in order by declaring a flagbearer in areas that are hotly contested.

In Mathare constituency, Raila asked Jubilee’s Kevin Bahati Kioko to drop his bid in favour of ODM’s Anthony Oluoch.

There, he also promised to give Bahati a job in the Azimio government.

“Bahati is my child, I will give him a job in government. Ruaraka MP is TJ Kajwang while Mathare MP is Oluoch,” Raila said.

Raila Odinga is seeking to succeed president Uhuru Kenyatta who has since thrown his weight behind him.