Information Communications Technology Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru now says Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Party Presidential candidate Raila Odinga will clearly win the August 9 General Election in the first round.
To win in the first round, a candidate has to get 50 per cent plus one vote.
“We will not require a round two vote… All indicators are that he will take it in round One. The data we have, the opinion polls available and many other factors point to that reality,” he said, in a candid declaration that is bound to cause fireworks within the Kenya Kwanza Alliance led by Deputy President Dr William Ruto.
He said Mr Odinga does not need to be helped to win through rigging “and even if we wanted to, it is technically impossible to corrupt the process of picking the fifth president for the country.”
He said he has noted Mr Odinga’s competitors exhibiting public cowardice regarding the vote and in panic, have resorted to “insult and lie to Kenyans that some of us in government are planning to rig them out.”
He accused the Kenya Kwanza brigade of sensing defeat and is trying to prepare their supporters on how to reject the results, using government officers as a scapegoat. He urged them to approach the vote to lose cleanly since there is no one interested in stealing their votes.
He wondered how he can be planning to steal the vote while he has been holding a series of meetings with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), security, media, judiciary, National Integration and Cohesion Committee (NCIC), diplomats, political parties involved and the clergy.
“The electoral ICT systems are ready where by August 9 we will have 100 percent internet coverage in all the 53, 000 polling stations that will facilitate a free, fair and credible election right from identifying all the 22.1 million voter to casting the vote all the way to tallying and transmitting the results,” he said.
He said he is privy to information that the security is ready for the task of “securing and protecting the exercise” and the electoral body and the judiciary well-funded to seamlessly play their roles in the exercise.
Mr Mucheru, while speaking in Inooro TV on Sunday night, said Mr Odinga who is being supported by President Uhuru Kenyatta salvaged a final kick from his earlier neck to neck tussle with Dr Ruto by nominating Martha Karua as his running mate.
“The other wing (Kenya Kwanza) messed by picking the one they did (Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua)…That person is doing them no good…But it is their problem and they know why they made their decision. But Karua has excited Kenyans and added value to Mr Odinga’s contest. Many people have confided to us that they will turn out and vote because Karua is credible and represents their aspirations,” Mr Mucheru said.
He said he is not ashamed to declare his political stand “since being a Cabinet Secretary does not in any way take away my democratic right as a Kenyan with freedom of choice in matters of national importance… we were taken to court in 2017 and the judiciary ruled that there is no law breached when government officers make a stand that helps their regime achieve its causes.”
He dared those opposed to Cabinet Secretaries campaigning for Mr Odinga to sue them.
“In any case, they say that we are campaigning while we are only helping our government pursue the common good…Personally I cannot say that I am campaigning, rather, I am helping Kenyans stop being lied to. I am helping Kenyans arrive at the most ideal decision about their future,” he said.
Mr Mucheru lamented that he is being stigmatised, discriminated against and harassed for no good cause by the Kenya Kwanza brigade.
“They are picking on me. They write letters complaining about me where they copy them to multiple institutions including the media but they interestingly omit me from receiving a copy. It makes it very hard for me to respond to them because they treat me as befitting to read about what they are accusing me from the media,” he said.
He lamented that there is Agriculture CS Peter Munya who is in government and is the Party of National Unity leader.
“There is also CS Eugene Wamalwa (Defense) who has his Party DAP-Kenya…Dr Ruto himself is in government and is contesting the presidency. But when it comes to complaining, they only pick on me and Interior CS Fred Matiang’i. If we should be pressurized to quit government, the calls should be fair and addressed to all of us…In fact, Dr Ruto should lead us out of the government since he is in government and contesting the presidency while we are in it and offering guidance and direction to Kenyans,” he said.
He said if there is someone who can steal the vote better than him, “it is the Deputy President since he is my senior in government and attends meetings that are higher in influence than me.”
He said “Dr Ruto is my senior in government and even attends the National Security Committee where I do not sit, is my senior in the cabinet…and should he summon me to brief him about the preparedness of the August 9 general elections like Mr Odinga did recently, I would go and give him a true account of my ministry’s input so far.” BY DAILY NATION