The Secretary-General for Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Council Junet Mohammed has said the coalition’s advisory panel for the selection of the presidential running mate will complete its mandate within 48 hours.

This is in regards to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)’s Thursday deadline for presidential candidates to select their running mates ahead of the August election.

The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition went back to the IEBC offices after its first petition to have their presidential candidate Raila Odinga delay the naming of his running mate until May was thrown out.

According to Junet, IEBC’s chairperson was engaged in Parliament paying his last respects to the late, retired President Mwai Kibaki. He also said they agreed they will meet on Tuesday.

"The chairman of the Commission was engaged in Parliament during the public viewing of his excellency Mwai Kibaki. So we have agreed that we are going to meet Tuesday at 10AM. But we met with other commissioners and made a lot of progress," Junet said.

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This comes after IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati said on Sunday that the choice of running mates works in tandem with the ongoing primaries whose deadline is set for April 28, 2022 therefore all presidential aspirants must name their running mates by then.

However, Junet said the time was not enough, especially for dealing with such serious matters. 

"You see time is not adequate when you're dealing with serious issues, but we shall see in the best reasonable manner possible. Our meeting with IEBC tomorrow will determine what the future looks like," Junet added.

Junet said the Azimio advisory panel charged with the responsibility of picking the Raila’s running mate will be put into operation to perform its mandate by the Thursday deadline after meeting IEBC.

"The Panel is in place and once we meet with IEBC, we will operationalize it. The Panel is ready to go to work," said Junet.