Jubilee Party Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni has called upon other presidential aspirants in the opposition to shelve their ambitions and throw their weight behind Dr. Fred Matiang’i in 2027, who is also the parties preferred candidate.

Speaking during TV47’s Daily Report show on Monday, June 16, Kioni argued that Matiang’i was the best candidate the opposition coalition can front, who has the goodwill of Kenyans to unseat President William Ruto.

According to Kioni, Matiang’i is the best suited candidate because he has the experience he garnered during his ten years serving under former President Uhuru Kenyatta. Kioni says that Matiang’i came in handy to help then-President Uhuru, at a time when Uhuru’s deputy (now President Ruto) started early campaigns that could have destabilised the government of the day.

“Matiang’i served this country for ten years. He has a track record of what Jubilee Party can do, and what they did under the stewardship of Uhuru Kenyatta. When William Ruto was out there doing tangatanga, Matiang’i is the person who was left in charge,” the former Ndaragwa MP said.

Among the reasons Kioni gave to support his argument was that having served under different influential capacities in Uhuru’s administration, Matiang’i would resonated well with Gen Zs (youth), who will form a majority of the voters in 2027.

“A good percentage of the Gen Zs are people who went through Fred Matiang’i, either at the Ministry of ICT, Ministry of Education or Ministry of Interior. He has a good rapport with them.”

A popular Matiang’i candidature?

And for the first time in many years, Kioni says that Kenyans are finally united under a particular presidential hopeful, and that is Matiang’i… not Kalonzo Musyoka, not Rigathi Gachagua, not Eugene Wamalwa, and not any other opposition leader.

“Kenyans are so happy with Fred Matiang’i. It is nearly 70 years down the line when we last agreed on an individual whom we wanted to rule this country, the way Kenyans have agreed on Matiang’i,” Kioni said. “The only other person who got perhaps this kind of acceptance is Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.”

A section of Kenyans and political commentators alike have argued that Matiang’i is a political novice, having not vied for any political position before, and therefore unfit to be president. However, Kioni likens a Matiang’i candidature to that of former President Mwai Kibaki.

“You can be a person who is ready for office, but you are not a politician, you are a leader. One such person is Mwai Kibaki. You can be a politician but also a person capable of transforming this country in a manner nobody could have imagined, one such person is Uhuru Kenyatta. You can also be a person who comes from the business world, you have seen things are not working well. You decide to run for office and do things that others did not expect you to do, in the name of Donald Trump.”

The ghosts of River Yala

A section of Kenyans and political pundits alike have also argued that Matiang’i, a former powerful Cabinet Secretary under then-President Uhuru Kenyatta, does not have a clean bill of health, especially when it comes to matters human rights.

During Uhuru’s presidency, Kenyans had become accustomed to bodies being recovered from River Yala, with many linking this phenomenon to victims of government’s high-handedness and extra-judicial killings.

Kioni, however, insists that Matiang’i will in the right time address all these allegations.

“Every presidential candidate will have answers to give to Kenyans. If you have skeletons in your wardrobe, you will deal with them. When he finally comes to do all the talking that some of us have been doing on his behalf, I am sure he will pick on those questions. Matiang’i is a gentleman who knows how to answer questions that relate to him. The River Yala questions are not difficult to him, he will answer them,” Kioni assures.