The Democratic Party (DP) has started hunting for a presidential candidate in readiness for the 2022 General Election as it seeks to regain the foothold it once had during former President Mwai Kibaki days.
Party National Organizing Secretary Njagi Kumantha said DP would no longer endorse other parties’ presidential candidates as it did in 2013 and 2017 when it threw its weight behind President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He said the party will this month embark on a mass recruitment drive in Mt Kenya region and later countrywide to regain its lost glory.
Speaking after releasing the party’s plan to tour Isiolo, Meru, Embu and Tharaka Nithi counties, Dr Kumantha said they would prepare themselves for a post-Uhuru Kenyatta era.
He said the party which was founded 28 years ago, already had functioning county executive committees in 36 counties and believed they would be able to compete with other parties.
“We decided that after 2017, we will put more efforts to regain control. We don’t want to join other parties or to go supporting other parties. The least we can take is a coalition and not supporting other parties like we did in 2017 where we supported Jubilee candidates,” said Dr Kumantha.
The party has appointed former Roads Principal Secretary Irungu Nyakera as deputy party leader in what is seen as a move to eventually replace former Cabinet minister Joseph Munyao.
Mr Munyao has long served as the party leader but does not harbour presidential ambitions.
“We realised that this is a sensitive position since a party leader is the light of the party and we would want the right person to push the party forward. Mr Irungu Nyakera is quite vibrant.
“The governing council gave him at least one year to see if he can prove himself capable of holding the post. We have a national outlook and my deputy is Enock Olende from Homa Bay,” revealed Dr Kumantha.