ODM leader Raila Odinga is on a four day tour of the Coast region to mend rifts within the party over the list of nominations and the wars between ODM and smaller parties in the Azimio-One Kenya coalition.
Odinga is also in shock after a research company hired Azimio found that the Coast region has the least percentage of those who will vote for him. The region also has the highest number of undecided voters who are likely to go a different way and support DP Dr. William Ruto of Kenya Kwanza Alliance.
Ruto has made inroads in most ODM strongholds and turned them into battlegrounds and some he has taken over. Coast region is fatigued with Odinga whom they have voted in the previous polls only but ended up in bed with their oppressors.
The Deputy President is uprooting Odinga’s roots in the Coast with his bottom up economic agenda which aims to lift a majority of ordinary Kenyans from poverty and fix the debt ridden economy.
Leaders of Kenya Kwanza Alliance have also been vocal about the mortgaging of the Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu ports by Azimio big wigs. The KK principals recently exposed President Uhuru Kenyatta and Odinga over the secret sale of the three ports to a Dubai based firm, Dubai Port World FZE.
The sale of the ports come amid public outcry after investments worth billions of shillings were rendered idle in Mombasa when operations including transit cargo and clearing were shifted from the Port of Mombasa to Naivasha by the Handshake brothers.
The move that led to massive lose of employment at the Coast benefited Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho whose cargo firm (Autoport) was gifted with a cargo terminal in Nairobi built by public funds.
Odinga is returning to the Coast after two months but his all the recent campaigns have been lukewarm and disjointed after Governor Joho and the controversial businessman Suleiman Shahbal shifted their focus to national politics.
The stingy Odinga remains exposed in Mombasa where he has less than three billboards. ODM candidates’ billboards in strategic corners of the Port City the city do not bear Odinga’s photos or thos of his running mate Mama Martha Karua.
Before the Coast tour, Mzee Odinga was in Western Kenya where DP Ruto has also invaded his strongholds like Kakamega County and turned it into a battleground.
Experts argue that DP’s relevance with the concerns of the people of Western Kenya has bagged him a sizeable share of the region’s 2.2 million votes as August 9 polls draw closer.
Ruto went on a charm offensive in the region soon after the 2017 polls when his influence secured Jubilee eight out of the 33 parliamentary seats.
The DP was also key in increasing Kenyatta’s presidential tally in Kakamega which was under Odinga. The outgoing president got 63,191 votes in 2017, up from the 12,469 he got in 2013.
Ruto is now boasting of a solid vote base in the Mulembe Nation with Bungoma and Trans-Nzoia firmly in his Kenya Kwanza’s control. He has made irreversible inroads in Busia, Vihiga and daring to snatch Kakamega from Odinga.
“Many people from various parts of the country are in Kenya Kwanza. Those who started this journey of uniting Kenyans is ANC Leader Musalia Mudavadi and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetangula. Let us forget the past and focus on the future. I am urging all of you to join the winning team which is Kenya Kwanza,” Dr. Ruto said.
The DP has vowed to give the region a 30% share of his government and several Cabinet slots in the Kenya Kwanza Administration while Odinga is only promising two CS slots to Oparanya and Eugene Wamalwa.
