Azimio La Umoja coalition flag bearer Raila Odinga has called for tolerance among aspirants as he announced a fresh zoning exercise, ahead of the coming General Election.

He said they will try as much as possible to advocate for consensus from all the candidates so as to produce the best candidate to compete against their competitor-Kenya Kwanza.

“We are assuring our aspirants that we shall arm them with the necessary funds and support, to make sure that we win in this election,” he said.

Under the process, aspirants from various parties under the coalition will be vetted afresh, so as to pick the most popular candidate.

Strong candidate

The exercise could see some of the aspirants who have already received party nominations blocked from participating in the elections.

This emerged when Raila met aspirants at Club Heritage Naivasha, before holding several roadside rallies.

Addressing the aspirants, Raila noted that the only way of winning in the elections is in presenting one strong candidate per constituency.

“In some constituencies, we have many aspirants from our coalition competing against each other and this gives the opponent an upper hand,” he said.

On corruption, Raila without mentioning names lashed out at his competitors in Kenya Kwanza, terming them as masters of graft.

“Once in office, I will make sure that all those involved in graft are locked up in Naivasha GK Prison and Kamiti Maximum OPrison,” he said.

He termed Naivasha as very critical to the country’s economic hub, adding that plans were underway to construct more factories if he ascended into power.

He assured his supporters that his government will in 100 days, address the economic crisis in the country which has pushed up the cost of living.

“My government will increase funding to counties as part of supporting devolution and also address the issue of health cover for all Kenyans,” he said.

On his part, Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui noted that for years, the county had been forgotten when it came to the appointment of public officers.

He is optimistic that this would be addressed under the Azimio government adding that the county is fully behind Raila’s candidature.

“In the past governments, Nakuru has missed out in Cabinet, parastatals and ambassadorial positions and it is our hope this will be addressed this time around,” he said.

Speaking in Nyandarua earlier, Raila urged locals to join him in bringing economic liberation to the country.

He said the liberation will bring into reality the dreams the country’s founding fathers had of ending ignorance, diseases and poverty.

Speaking when he met Nyandarua winners and losers of the recent Azimio affiliated parties’ nomination at Olbolossat Resort in Ol Joroorok, Raila said the third liberation is a follow up of two other liberations; one of independence and the other on democratic space and Constitutional reforms.

 He hailed those who lost but agreed to remain in the coalition and support the winners adding that the Azimio manifesto will be out in the next few days.

Former Water Cabinet Ministry Sicily Kariuki, who recently stepped down in her Nyandarua governorship seat bid promised to use the structures she had set to campaign for Raila in the county.

 “I will campaign for Baba in Nyandarua to ensure the structures and resources I had put in place do not go to waste,” she said.