Former Homa Bay gubernatorial aspirant Oyugi Magwanga has urged the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party to exercise fairness in the approaching 2022 election nominations.
The latter vied on the party ticket in the 2017 elections, but claims that he was denied the party ticket despite winning in the primaries, and instead given to Governor Cyprian Awiti.
But he now says that the party should prepare for another defeat as was recently witnessed in Ugenya constituency should the same repeat itself in 2022, declaring that he will vie again.
He said in Saturday that he will again be taking a shot at the top seat, and is well in the race to succeed Awiti who is serving his second and last term at the helm of the county leadership.
"I won in 2017 but the ticket was given to Awiti. I remain a member of the ODM party but I will not hesitate to get another option if the party fails to correct its mistakes," he said on Radio Nam Lolwe.
"A time has come that Kenyans seem to be electing leaders as persons and not their parties and if ODM is not careful, it might see a repeat of what recently happened in Ugenya come 2022," said Magwanga.
The former Kasipul MP defended his decision to vie as an dependent candidate after the 2017 primaries, noting that the same does not mean that he had moved out of the party.
"I don't have a problem with ODM, vying on an independent ticket does not mean that I have moved out of the party," he said.
He said that he has what it takes to save the suffering people of Homa Bay.
In the April 5 Ugenya byelection, ODM's Chris Karan lost to David Ochieng of the Movement for Democracy and Growth (MDG).