Kilifi County Gubernatorial Race is now the hottest seat attracting strong political players as the main contest is seen to be between the Orange Democratic Movement party and the Pamoja African Alliance party led by Governor Amason Kingi.
The two parties have been holding aggressive campaigns against each other despite Kingi announcing that his party is among the many political outfits supporting the Azimio La Umoja movement.
Former Devolution Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Gideon Mung’aro was among hundreds of ODM aspirants for various positions who met in Kilifi town on Friday to deliberate on how best to conduct the party primaries while the only PAA candidate for the governor position prominent Nairobi lawyer George Kithi held a political rally in Ganze town where he was blessed by Kaya elders to contest for the position.
The meeting that was attended by at least four MPs from the county including Ganze’s Teddy Mwambire, Rabai MP William Kamoti, Kilifi South MP Ken Chonga and his Kaloleni counterpart Paul Katana turned stormy when the various aspirants especially the governor aspirants were invited to address the gathering.
Mr. Mung’aro said that he will steer the County forward in terms of development adding that there were a of lot essential misses that the outgoing governor had overlooked.
“I want everyone to support Baba Raila Amolo Odinga as the fifth president of Kenya. I have heard the Kenya Kwanza team say that Raila is a government project and I want to tell them that whether he is a government project of a CDF project we shall rally behind him so that he becomes our next president,” said Mung’aro.
Mr. Kithi on his part said that he was best suited to continue with the legacy of outgoing Governor Amason Kingi adding that he will end hunger and dependence on relief food especially in Ganze Sub County.
“I want to tell you that once I become governor of Kilifi County on August 9th, I will ensure that we eradicate poverty and hunger and promote development in the county and so help me God,” he said.
The PAA party has only one aspirant for Governor in George Kith while ODM has at least four aspirants that include Mung’aro, Kilifi County Assembly speaker Jimmy Kahindi, Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi and Kenya High Commissioner to Tanzania Dan Kazungu.
“We shall have one of us who will lead the ODM team as governor and I want to say here that I am the best placed candidate. I want ODM to conduct a fair nomination process so that Kilifi remains an ODM zone,” said Mr. Kahindi.
The Kilifi ODM chairman and Ganze MP Teddy Mwambire said that he will oversee a credible nomination exercise adding that the party was still strong in the County.
“We must all walk together so that we pass the nomination exercise in a proper way. As the ODM chairman I will ensure that there are credible nominations and in the event that we have a dispute, the vote will be repeated until we get a qualified candidate,” he said.
By Treeza Auma
Treeza Auma is a Digital Content Producer and founder of https://www.ktmn.co.ke KTMN She is also Television journalist at Kenya News Agency and Leadership Accelerator at Women in News.