Kirinyaga Woman Representative Wangui Ngirici has today announced her official exit from Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.
When declaring the move, Ngirici castigated the yellow party’s officials for pressuring her into dropping her Gubernatorial ambitions in favour of Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru.
Speaking to local residents during one of her tours, she angrily revealed that she was at one point advised to vie for a smaller position of the Mwea parliamentary seat on the party’s ticket.
“When I appeared at the headquarters, the officials tried to convince me to give up my gubernatorial ambitions and vie for Mwea Parliamentary seat on UDA ticket. I refused as they were determined to kill my dream,” she narrated.
She explained that the sudden move cast heavy doubts on the DP’s pledge of free and fair nominations inside the party.
“If they are telling you to vie for Mwea seat, do you think there will be fair nominations?” Wangui posed to the residents of Kangai in Mwea.
As a result, she declared that she is ready to contest against Waiguru as an independent candidate because she cannot afford to buy a nomination ticket like the rest of her competitors.
“They received over Ksh 200 million from local politicians to buy nomination tickets, do you think there will be fair nomination?” she posed to the voters.
“I better give you the money instead of buying a UDA ticket,” she added.
At the same time, Ngirici urged the residents to choose wisely their preferred presidential candidate ahead of 2022.
She has also vowed not to rescind her decision following insults hurled at her by critics on social media.
“My decision is final and I will not retreat,” she added.
The legislator had been a close ally of William Ruto until 26th November 2020 when her political rival and Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru decamped to UDA.
She is said to have felt unease in UDA when Waiguru officially joined the party and was received by Ruto in Nairobi.
Prior to her exit, she has been giving a number of the DP’s rallies in central Kenya a wide berth.
Specifically, she kept away from Ruto’s recent tours of Embu where political rival, Waiguru who seemed to have replaced her was in attendance and even as she remains confident of retaining her supporters.
