Gachoka MP Musyimi to challenge Uhuru for TNA ticket

• Rev Musyimi announces he will not be asking the Democratic Party (DP) to back his bid for the presidency.

• MP says he settled on TNA because of its increasing popularity in his Gachoka constituency.

Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi will challenge Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta for The National Alliance (TNA) party presidential ticket.

Rev Musyimi made the revelation Thursday as he has announced he will not be asking the Democratic Party (DP) to back his bid for the presidency.

He made the decision after differences with the DP’s leadership over his nomination as its presidential flagbearer and a common stand on alliances with other parties.

The MP, who launched his presidential campaign on July 2 last year, has been talking to DP’s officials and delegates in 42 counties.

“I don’t want to come here and wash dirty linen in public. I hold the Democratic Party in very high regard save to say that I have moved on and I have made my own recommendations to the Democratic Party on the way forward,” said Rev Musyimi.

Increasing popularity

He said he chose TNA because of its increasing popularity in his Gachoka constituency, which has been renamed Mbeere South.

Rev Musyimi also suggested he would concentrate on local politics even as he bids for TNA’s ticket and would be keeping his options open.

“If you run for the nomination on the TNA ticket for the presidency and then you don’t make it, then you have to be alive to the other options that exist in the elective offices…one keeps one’s options open,” he said.

He said he would look to defend his parliamentary seat if his bid for State House flops.

If he seeks to defend his seat, Rev Musyimi will be up against about six other candidates, among them Col Geoffrey Muturi, President Kibaki’s former bodyguard.