Miguna Miguna Dumps Running Mate, Names New One as IEBC Rejects His Papers

Nairobi Governor aspirant Miguna Miguna’s nomination papers were rejected by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officials on Thursday morning for submitting signatures in the wrong format. Miguna was given a chance to correct the anomaly and submit the papers later in the day.

“We only accept the signatures in excel format, he brought his in a JPEG format. He will first have to correct that,” the IEBC official insisted.

Miguna further shocked his supporters after he turned up for the nomination verification by the poll management body with a different running mate from the one he had unveiled two weeks ago.

IEBC Nairobi County Returning Officer Joseph Mele, sitting at the Kasarani Stadium, said that Miguna presented 2,000 signatures that were in the wrong format, hence the turning away by the Commission.

It emerged that the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s advisor dropped former student leader James Gathungu as his running mate and replaced him with little known Karen Wangenye.

Two weeks ago, the former Canada-based lawyer unveiled James Karihe Gathungu, a former Laikipia University student leader, at a low key ceremony. “This candidature is distinctly different from that of Kidero and Sonko,”  Miguna had said at the time he unveiled the running mate.

He declined to give reasons why he had replaced Gathungu with Wangenye.