Video: Miguna Miguna Vying for Nairobi County Governor Seat

Miguna Miguna, the former aide to Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga on coalition matters and author of the book Peeling Back The Mask: A Quest For Justice in Kenya today announced that he is vying for the Nairobi County Governor’s seat in the upcoming general elections.

In an appearance on K24’s Capital Talk with Jeff Koinange (videos at the bottom of this article), Miguna revealed that he will be vying for the seat as an independent bipartisan candidate. He also later in a statement announced that he formally resigned as an ODM lifetime member on September 1st, 2012, while also revealing his minimum 10-point program to his candidature:

1. Tackling the unemployment rate, especially among the youth, which shamefully stand at 65 percent by creating opportunities through increased, efficient and accountable revenue collection, the initiation of massive infrastructural development and effective and skills-oriented youth training and employment programs.
2. Proactively and systematically instituting and implementing systems aimed at eliminating grand corruption that siphons more than 60 percent of the DGP thereby releasing the recovered funds and those saved from theft for employment and other development initiatives.
3. Constructing the largest solid waste management system in Africa. We will build modern sewers, collect and incinerate garbage, initiate aggressive beautification programs by reserving spaces for public parks and recreational facilities throughout the county.
4. Rehabilitating existing roads and rail systems and building new light rail mass transit routes, a subway system and a public bus system in order to address the transportation gridlock in the county.
5. We will significantly lower the crime rate through aggressive community policing, intense intelligence gathering, and more focused and well-trained and professional County Security service; and by sharing intelligence with other law enforcement agencies and by creating safety through more employment opportunities and accelerated infrastructural development for the youth. We aim to reduce the rate of armed robberies by 70 percent, homicides by more than 80 percent and theft of public resources by 100 percent.
6. Eliminating the housing crisis in Nairobi by constructing modern and affordable housing through new technology, partnership with financial institutions and development partners and the introduction of a Nairobi-based mortgage scheme for people with modest means.
7. Nairobi suffers from an acute shortage of high quality public health facilities, which are adequately staffed and resourced. We intend to build enough modern health care facilities to mitigate this problem.
8. We will ensure that all Nairobi residents have access to high quality schools, colleges, institutes and universities, since we believe that education is the cornerstone for prosperity.
9. Throughout my life, I have fought against all forms of discrimination and injustice - discrimination based on race, colour, ethnicity, gender and religion. My administration will transform Nairobi into a fully tolerant, all-embracing and multicultural community where there is a thriving culture of democratic discourse; where all the rights and freedoms enshrined and entrenched in the Constitution are respected and upheld.
   We will introduce a new leadership that doesn't tolerate tribalism, nepotism and sexism.
10. I have been part and parcel of the movement for progressive change in Kenya since my youth. I was part of the struggle for the reintroduction of multiparty democracy and the ratification of the new constitution. I am committed to its implementation.

Miguna has been in the headlines in the last few months since releasing his book, in which he exposed corruption, nepotism and other ills in the Prime Minister's office. He has been on a countrywide tour promoting the book, a tour that has led to violent confrontations in some Kenyan towns betweenn him and supporters of the Prime Minister.