Former secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Mukhisa Kituyi has said he will not drop his 2022 presidential bid in favour of another candidate or coalition.

Kituyi said he is in the race to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta for the long haul.

“It is not a question of ‘if or whether I can’. The reality is that – unlike others who simply threaten – I will be on the ballot,” Kiyuyi said.

The former Trade Miniser was speaking at Pwani Primary Schoool in Togaren constituency, Bungoma County, during the funeral service of Violet Malumasi, who was the Deputy Principal of Pwani Secondary school.

She was the wife of prominent Bungoma businessman George Malumasi and the daughter or former editor of the National Assembly’s Hansard, the late Daniel Lirunjiro.

Kituyi was responding to a challenge by Kakamega County Assembly Deputy Speaker Leonard Soita who had asked him to explain how he hoped to clinch the presidency when there were other leaders from the region who are angling for the same seat in addition to his perceived leaning towards former Prime Minister Raila Odinga who is also expected to run.

Soita was referring to Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi, Bungoma senator Moses Wetang’ula and Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, all who have declared their interest to compete in next year’s State House race.

Said Kituyi: “Let no one have this notion that I am going to pull out of the race in favour of another candidate. I am running for the presidency”

“The reason why I want to become Kenya’s next president is because I want to change the politics and economy of this country.

My meetings with Raila and other like-minded Kenyans are purely strategic. I am moving around the country explaining myself to Kenyans why I want to be President. I will go to every corner of this country doing that,” said the former MP for Kimilili.

Massive squalor

Kituyi observed that in spite of its vantage position in the growth of the country’s economy, the Western region had deliberately been marginalised by subsequent governments since independence, which he said had resulted in massive squalor and unemployment in the area.

“Right now, President Uhuru Kenyatta is launching massive development projects worth billions of shillings in (the former) Nyanza (Province), yet there is nothing for Western.

This discrimination has been there since independence. There is very little to write home about regarding the economy of this region,” Kituyi said.