Justina Wamae Congratulates Ruto, Attacks Wajackoyah Again

Roots Party presidential running mate, Justina Wamae has spoken for the first time since William Ruto was declared president-elect by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman, Wafula Chebukati on Monday, August 15.

In a statement on Friday, August 19, Wamae noted that she had been away from the interwebs for four days which she spent following the standoff by the four IEBC commissioners and the Azimio la Umoja coalition against the commission on whether the electoral process on Tuesday, August 9 was conducted fairly.

Seemingly backing up sentiments from a majority of Kenyans across the country, Wamae revealed that the IEBC did their mandate with transparency as the polling station agents were mostly in control of the whole process.

Justina Wamae at Bomas of Kenya on August 15, 2022. /FILE

She noted that the agents would have been the ones to take action in the event the Presiding Officer committed an electoral malpractice.

"It has taken me four days listening to arguments from all quotas on whether IEBC was free, fair and transparent and I can confidently say that the election was transparent because the polling station agents who are supreme in this process would have raised an alarm if the Presiding Officer was up to no good.

"The Returning Officer at the constituency level would have been alarmed and mark you the national tallying centre had no power in determining the outcome of the 2022 Presidential election," she stated.

Wamae launched another attack on the Roots Party, under George Wajackoyah, for being chaotic during the process. According to her, they failed to deploy agents during the election period and instead lamented that their votes were subject to rigging.

"So when I see some parties like Roots Party who as a member can confidently say we were disorganized in regards to agents' mobilization stating that votes were stolen is simply preposterous. As a future leader, we need to stop bashing our institutions which in turn will translate to inciting the public against constitutionally mandated institutions," she said.

She nonetheless thanked the party's supporters for helping the duo garner over 60,000 votes, which was an achievement since it was contesting the elections for the very first time.

"To our supporters, 61,969 is no mean feat, do not lose hope, what you did made a difference and building on itself will go into make a difference in future," she added.

Wamae endorsed William Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua as President-elect and Deputy President-elect respectively, expressing hope that Kenyans would accept the outcome of the just-concluded polls. 

Only Azimio la Umoja has come out to openly oppose the results and vowed to challenge them at the Supreme Court.

"Congratulations H.E Ruto and H.E Rigathi on your victory. As the representative of the Kenyan youth, I will support in any way I can to achieve a financially secure Kenya that is dignified across the globe," she stated.

Speaking to KTN News on Thursday, August 4, Wamae had ruled out joining Azimio or the Kenya Kwanza coalition as a subsequence, adding that she was going to be with Wajackoyah until the time of the elections.

She had exposed Wajackoyah as a mole for the Azimio coalition to affirm her position as a party and as the marijuana professor's running mate. She affirmed that she was only standing for the interests of women and youth, revealing that the public statement proved that top party officials can disagree with each other without escalating to tantrums.

She noted that she was not consulted despite her position in the party and her name was already on the ticket ahead of the elections.