Mwakwere ‘ready for duel with Mvurya’

The announcement by Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya that he was headed out of the Orange Democratic Party (ODM) has spurred a flurry of political activity in the county, with former Matuga MP Chirau Mwakwere bursting into the scene.

On Monday, some ODM officials in Kwale said they had started courting the politician to have him run against the governor in next year’s polls.

Mr Mwakwere is Kenya’s ambassador to Tanzania and lost to Mvurya in the last elections.

The ambassador, who was also a former Cabinet minister in President Mwai Kibaki’s administration, confirmed that he had been approached by ODM officials “and others’’, saying he was open to run on any party’s ticket.

Mr Mwakwere termed the development as “not surprising and neither is it big news”.

“I have been approached by the opposition and several others to become their candidate for Kwale governorship next year because they know I am the only one who will defeat Mr Mvurya,” he told the Nation.

According to Mr Mwakwere, party-hopping was a trend in Kenyan politics “and therefore, if I were to move to ODM, like Governor Mvurya’s move to Jubilee, it would not be big news”.

He would challenge Mr Mvurya “even as an independent candidate” he said, remarking that the next Kwale governor would not be voted in along party lines, but through their development record.

“I have consulted widely in Kwale among residents and leaders and I am 100 per cent sure that I am the frontrunner for the governor’s seat, because of my development record. I have finished the task of being voted for, only waiting for the day to be sworn in,” he said.

Kwale Deputy Governor Fatuma Achani said Mr Mvurya was forced to take “the painful’’ decision because of frustration and disrespect by some of his party’s local officials driven by tribalism.

“Governor Mvurya did not want to leave ODM but was relentlessly and persistently fought, frustrated and eventually hounded out of the party by some officials who are tribalists to the bone,’’ she said.

DEVELOPMENT RECORD
In Kwale on Monday, vice chairperson Nicholas Zani and the Matuga Chairman Hassan Chitembe said the ODM team in Kwale would mount a campaign to ensure Mr Mvurya was not re-elected.

“I would like to tell Mr Mvurya and all other ODM rebels that Kwale County and the entire Coast region is an ODM zone and we will be very quick to send them home,” said Mr Chitembe.

Mr Mvurya’s ODM critics in Kwale have been pushing to have him denied the party’s ticket for re-election, accusing him of according lukewarm support to the Opposition Cord.

His colleagues, Mombasa’s Hassan Joho and Amason Kingi of Kilifi have also been said to be uncomfortable with Mr Mvurya because he did not participate in the March Malindi by-election in support of the ODM candidate William Mtengo who won.

On Saturday, while addressing a presidential rally in Msambweni attended also by Deputy President William Ruto, Governor Mvurya said he and his deputy Fatuma Achani would ask Kwale constituents to vote for President Uhuru Kenyatta and Jubilee, citing funding of development projects by the government in the area.

He said the Jubilee administration had supported his development agenda, which was why he was asking his people to vote for President Kenyatta.

Governor Mvurya also spoke of frustrations with calls and attempts “from some direction’’ to have him denied ODM nomination to defend his seat.

He spoke after the presidential team returned from touring the Mkanda Dam project in Lunga Lunga into which his government had pumped in Sh50 million and the national one Sh200 million to provide water for 30,000 residents.

The President also toured Msambweni Referral Hospital where he commissioned equipment worth Sh400 million and pledged to equip its Intensive Care Unit.

The President and his deputy praised the governor for his “impressive development record”.

The President described Mr Mvurya as a respected leader who “should be in Jubilee where leaders respect each other”.