Dr Mukhisa Kituyi on Sunday formally announced his bid for the presidency in next year’s General Election.
Dr Kituyi, a former Trade and Industry minister in the Mwai Kibaki government between 2002 and 2007, when the country recorded impressive growth, said he had learnt from his boss and coupled with his international experience, he is the best man to steer Kenya’s economic recovery.
The immediate former United Nations Conference on Trade and Development secretary-general returned to the country yesterday.
A convoy escorted him from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to the city centre where he announced his quest to succeed President Kenyatta.
The three-term MP, who served between 1992 and 2007 when he lost his seat to Dr Eseli Simiyu, said he is banking on his wide international experience to improve Kenya’s economy. “You cannot crave serious change in society if you are not ready to be the change you desire. I have a sense of what needs to be done, I am in good health, and I am ready to say ‘Let me be the change I desire,” Dr Kituyi told journalists at the Serena Hotel yesterday.
Rapid improvement
“I served with pride as the minister for trade and industry for five years. We repealed 35 pieces of legislation and oversaw the most rapid improvement on the business-friendly index in Kenya’s history. I served and exited without a waft of corruption.”
Dr Kituyi said he had the best policies yet on economic recovery, and challenged his competitors to counter his proposal.
“You do not just run on policy. You run on record, on what you have done. We need to ask our leaders: ‘What is it about your leadership we need to have more of?’ before we go to the ballot,” the former minister said.
He warned that the current debt accumulation in Kenya is dangerous and needs to be addressed.
“We cannot kick the can down the road forever on this. We must tame our appetite to live beyond our means and ensure that we centralise economic governance as a pillar to nation building,” he said.
Besides his international experience and the Kibaki first-term presidency achievements, Dr Kituyi has also anchored what will be his first shot at the top job at what he says will be civilised politics.
“There is a space for politics of ideals, of decency and respect. We can civilise our politics. It has become somewhat of a national pastime for national leaders to hurl insults at each other in public and that is just not the way politics should be carried out. If public leaders intensify toxic exchanges, it impacts us negatively,” Dr Kituyi said.
He said he is not aligned to any of the main political formations.
“The fact that I am outside the forest means that I can see the canopy better than some of those who are inside. I am not in Nasa or Jubilee. I am not in Kieleweke or Tangatanga,” he said.
In an interview with the Nation, Dr Kituyi rubbished claims he is a project in the 2022 State House race.
As he plans to head to his western Kenya backyard where ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang’ula have been having a cooperation pact in search of an elusive Luhya unity, Dr Kituyi was yesterday firing a warning shot at the two leaders. “I am not seeking to be a Luhya leader. I am seeking to be the President of the Republic of Kenya,” said the former minister, who hails from Tongaren in Bungoma, said.
Dr Kituyi refused to take a position on the ongoing BBI process, only saying it is built on a good foundation “but it is not a panacea to all our issues.”
COURTESY OF DAILY NATION