Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has officially opted not to defend his Mwingi North parliamentary seat in the coming general election choosing rather to focus on the presidency. The announcement follows a recent move by the Parliament to bar presidential contenders from simultaneously seeking other elective posts in the election.
The VP effectively retracts a declaration he made last year while launching a Cadam sorghum growing project in Kyuso that he will run for both the presidency and parliamentary seat as the constitution was not against such an arrangement. On Wednesday however, Musyoka said he will now concentrate his efforts in popularising his presidential candidacy. The VP made the announcement when he presided over the ground breaking ceremony for the Sh300 million phase one of the Wikithuki irrigation scheme in Tseikuru district.
The VP said he will not stop at anything but that he is going the full blast to the ballot to become the next tenant of the 'house on the hill'. “I will not seek to defend my parliamentary seat next year after serving my people for 28 years. I will now seek to preside over a national constituency as the president, come the next election. It is however a tough task that calls for consolidated local and national support,” said the VP.
Kalonzo asked politicians keen to take over his parliamentary seat to be ready to match his performance. He invited them to join his “Wiper party” through which they should seek nomination if they were to succeed. The VP also handed a 99-year lease certificate to Nzomo Kakuruwho is the chairman of the cooperative society that will run the project.
He revealed that President Kibaki will soon commission the project. The VP asked his constituents to support the irrigation project to beimplemented through collaboration between Moi University, the University of Alexandria and the local Wikithuki cooperative society. “Once this project takes off, the locals will no longer depend on relief food as they will grow enough food for themselves and export the surplus to other areas for income,” said Kalonzo.
He told the residents that the Kenya Airports Authority will build an airstrip near the Tseikuru town to ensure that perishable horticultural crops like French beans are airlifted to international markets. The VP who was accompanied by the MD of the Moi University-run RivatexTextile Company Dr David Tuitong. Tuitong said the varsity planned to initially put 500 acres of the irrigation land into cotton farming and set up a ginnery in the area.
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