ODM Executive Director Oduor Ongwen has weighed in on an appeal that Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja made to the ruling Jubilee Party not to field a candidate in the Kibra parliamentary contest.
Speaking exclusively to KTN on Friday, Ongwen said that ODM never asked Sakaja to make the appeal as some quarters said.
"I think Senator Sakaja was speaking as a member of Jubilee and he was appealing to Jubilee Party. Senator Sakaja is not a member of ODM and he was not appealing to ODM. And if his appeals were ignored that is purely a Jubilee affair. ODM did not send him," Ongwen said.
During a funeral ceremony of former Kibra MP Ken Okoth, Sakaja asked Jubilee and ODM to settle for a single candidate, promising to engage President Uhuru Kenyatta on the issue.
That appeal appears not to have been heeded to as the governing Jubilee Party settled on former football star McDonald Mariga.
Ongwen said that Jubilee had every right to field a candidate in the race.
ODM will conduct its nomination exercise on Saturday when it will pick a flag-bearer it hopes will be strong enough to enable it to defend the seat.