'He was wearing Gideon boots': Justina Wamae reveals how she first met Prof. Wajackoyah

Roots Party leader Prof. George Wajackoyah's running mate Justina Wamae has shed light on how her path came to cross with that of the controversial presidential aspirant who is eyeing the country’s top seat at the August polls.

Prof. Wajackoyah and Wamae were on Thursday last week jointly cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in their bid to replace President Uhuru Kenyatta in the house on the hill.

Speaking on Citizen TV's JKLive show on Wednesday night, Wamae disclosed that she first came to know of the Roots Party leader by chance after her husband incidentally sent her a photo of the free-spirited professor.

"My husband Alex sent me a picture of Prof. Wajackoyah; he was wearing Gideon boots and a T-Shirt on Facebook and that was the first time I learnt of him," Wamae said during the interview.

After some time, Wamae would get the opportunity to interact with Wajackoyah on a personal level after the Roots Party announced that it was welcoming applications for the running mate position.

She took a gamble and applied for the position, attaching a curriculum vitae she had crafted in 2018, in her letter of interest, when she was eyeing a ministerial position. A face-to-face interview was soon after organised by the party.

The outfit, Wamae added, insisted that she avail herself at the interview location with her husband in tow if she was married. According to her, the interview was conducted by a panel led by a retired judge.

"The reason behind that was that they would have two votes from my family. After the interview, the panel instructed us to go back home and wait for the results," she said. 

"The party later called to inform me that I had landed the running mate slot." 

Wamae now says that she is humbled to be on the ballot alongside Wajackoyah, being in the same ballot paper and competing against a veteran Kenyan politician in the race to State House.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Wajackoyah and the Roots party.  I was brought up in Kibera and right now I am on the same ballot paper with one of the presidential candidates who was the Kibera MP back when I was a young girl and it is a humbling experience," she stated.

Wamae is a 35-year-old businesswoman who has been in the excavation industry and supply of building materials. She is married and has a three-year old daughter.

She graduated from Daystar University with a Bachelor's degree in 2010 and has a Master's degree in procurement and logistics from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).

Wamae first entered politics in 2017, when she unsuccessfully contested for the Mavoko Parliamentary seat as an independent candidate, garnering 1,200 votes.