The party primaries saw the rise of Wavinya Ndeti who rose from an underdog (at the beginning of the year) to favourite to win the elections on August 8.

The Wiper party's National election board organized a nomination exercise that saw a landslide win for Wavinya Ndeti announced in spite of a boycott by Bernard Kiala.

[9] The second round of the nominations saw in a low voter turnout amid another boycott by Bernard Kiala and resulted in a win[10] for Wavinya Ndeti.

Bernard Kiala who was the sole challenger to Wavinya Ndeti in the Wiper democratic Movement Kenya primaries quit the party, protesting disobedience of the court orders he had sought.

Kiala sought to contest the gubernatorial seat as an Independent candidate, choosing scholar Evelyn Mutula as his running mate.

Wavinya's nomination by Wiper Democratic Movement-Kenya didn't go well with former Spokesman of the party Johnstone MuthamaMuthama who was then-Senator for Machakos County.

In a rejoinder the Registrar of political parties Lucy Ndung’u regretted the decision saying that according to her database Wavinya is in the register of Wiper Democratic Movement-Kenya.

[16] A week before the general elections, Bernard Kiala and his running mate withdrew[17][18] from the contest as what he claimed as a gesture to strengthen outcomes for the NASA coalition.