Kiambu County Senate aspirant Karugo wa Thang’wa has turned down a plum county job offer from holeful county Governor Ferdinand Waititu.
Early this week, Waititu asked Karungo to step down from the Senatorial race which he is vying as an independent candidate in exchange for a senior position in the county government.
“Tell us the position you want to be given when we assume leadership,” Waititu urged the Ngewa ward MCA.
Waititu said that they can only support Jubilee nominee for the seat who is the incumbent Senator Kimani Wamatangi.
He publicly told Karungo, who has been in Team United Kiambu that trounced incumbent Governor William Kabogo in the primaries , that he will not support an independent candidate.
“I will not support you as an independent candidate. I want you in the Jubilee Party and in my team,” firmly stated Waititu who addressed congregants at Calvary Chosen Centre in Thika.
He did not allow Karungo to say a word to the worshippers.
However, Karungo has maintained a hard-line position insisting that he must be on the ballot come August 8.
He explained that his decision to stay put to the course is informed by the fact that if he stepped down, he would be letting down those who supported him.
He alluded to the fact that he had won in Jubilee primaries but was inordinately rigged out and the only way to prove he is the people’s choice is to battle it out with Wamatangi on August 8.
“Pulling out would mean shuttering the hopes, dreams and aspirations of Kiambu people who were denied their win during the just concluded Jubilee nominations,” he told Daily Nation.
In the Jubilee primaries, he managed 178,814 votes while the incumbent emerged winner after garnering 206,282 votes.
But, he said should President Uhuru Kenyatta and the people of Kiambu ask him to step down, he will gladly do so.
“I can only change my mind when requested to by the President and the people of Kiambu,” said Karungo.