I won’t be Omar’s running mate, says Hezron Awiti

Nyali MP Hezron Awiti has said he will not accept to be Senator Hassan Omar’s running mate in the Mombasa gubernatorial race and that he will not leave the Wiper party.

He said there have been efforts to have him take the position of deputy governor but he has refused.

“I will not deputise anybody and with all due respect to my party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, I ask Omar to agree [to have] the nomination process to take place,” he said.

He spoke Tuesday at Maweni Secondary School when he distributed bursaries worth Sh27 million to needy students.

“I have also heard people say that I am going to defect. That is not true. I am in Wiper to stay because this is my mother party. I cannot leave my house,” he added.

The MP denied claims that he had been involved in a physical confrontation with Mr Omar in Nairobi in the presence of Mr Musyoka.

“There were negotiations and some exchange but that is normal. There was no fighting,” he said.

Mr Ibrahim Kai, a close ally of Mr Awiti, claimed that Mr Musyoka had been compromised to scuttle MP’s gubernatorial race.

But Mr Awiti declined to comment on the claims, only saying that those were “rumours”.

“I have heard that there is a tycoon who is splashing dollars around but I have no evidence. But what I can tell them is that the people of Mombasa cannot be bought,” he said.