BISHOP WANJIRU QUITS ODM, WILL SHE JOIN TNA?

The political terrain in Nairobi County politics is set to change drastically following the announcement by former Starehe MP Bishop Margaret Wanjiru that she has quit the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

There have been rumuors that she is heading to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s TNA and that she is set to run for the Nairobi Gubernatorial seat in 2017.

Her entry into the race through TNA will further complicate matters for TNA and more so former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu who lost to Dr. Evans Kidero in 2017. Analysts now say that should she join TNA then she is likely to give Waititu a run for his money to clinch the TNA ticket.

Another scenario is when she joins TNA and the Nairobi Senator Mike Mbuvi Sonko also joins the race as rumuors have been spreading. Sonko is also currently undertaking a degree course in Management and is set to graduate towards the end of the year.

It has also been rumuored that he is under pressure from his supporters to run for the seat in 2017 but he has always avoided giving comments on the same and has always kept his supporters guessing.

Jubilee’s game plan according to unconfirmed reports plans to have Sonko run for the governor’s seat in 2017 since he is seen as the only force that can overwhelmingly win the seat considering his support that cuts across political, religious and ethnic divide. In an event that Sonko shifts to the governor’s seat then Wanjiru must not waste her time facing him in the TNA nominations.

At omne time, Sonko was asked to state whether he has gone back to university to get a degree to run for 2017 but he denied saying he was elected by Nairobi people to serve them at the Senate and that issues of 2017 will take shape when the right time comes.

 Back to Wanjiru, she left ODM party after she was humiliated by the party leadership when she was denied the opportunity to vie for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat during the last General Elections. Wanjiru tried to vie for the seat on an ODM ticket but was barred after it emerged that her degree was not recognised and accused the party of doing nothing to save her situation.

She has been out of the limelight since the elections, spoke on Tuesday to journalists at St Paul’s University, from where she graduated with a degree in leadership and management.

“I have been very serious and very committed in school and now I have a Kenyan degree. A few years ago when I launched my candidature for the Nairobi governor, the only thing ODM did was to do what they did to me about my religious degree. They call them theological, pastoral, but now let’s hear who will say what now,” Wanjiru said.

She was barred from running for the seat after her degree in theology from Vineyard Harvester Bible College and her bachelor’s degree in christian leadership from United Graduate College and Seminary International were rejected by the Commission for Higher Education.

“Any party that feels that it wants to work with me, they can invite me, but ODM in not among them. Going back to ODM is a no. I left ODM a long time ago after what they did to me and that is democracy,” she said.

She believes that she was unfairly denied the chance to vie for the Nairobi governorship by ODM but believes it belongs to her and nothing will block her from getting it. “The Nairobi governorship was mine and it remains mine,” Wanjiru said.