President Uhuru Kenyatta with supporters in Lamu. [Photo/ PSCU]
The Coast region, once a stronghold for NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga, is now becoming a battleground for Jubilee and the opposition. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party now enjoys support in large parts of Lamu, Kwale, Tana River, Kilifi, Taita Taveta and even Mombasa counties, according to Jubilee Coast coordinator Farid Swaleh. The changing landscape, which deeply worries Raila — for he must win all those counties with a landslide to stand any chance of becoming president — follows repeated campaigns in the region by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. Key political leaders from virtually all the six coastal counties have decamped to Jubilee, endorsing the re-election UruRuto. Kwale, for instance, has Governor Salim Mvurya, who left ODM last year, supporting Jubilee. His main opponents, Chirau Maker of ODM and Wiper’s Issa Chipera have refused to unite, since they all belong to NASA, to avoid splitting votes. Recent opinion polls predict a landslide win for the Jubilee candidate. A bitter rivalry between ODM’s Governor Hassan Joho and Wiper’s Hassan Omar has made Raila to avoid campaigning in the county, for fear of further fueling the conflict, sources say. Meanwhile, Jubilee’s candidate in the county, Suleiman Shahbal, has been widely endorsed for the job. In Tana River County, Governor Hussein Dado, formerly of Wiper, is now a Jubilee candidate. Matters are even more complicated in Taita Taveta County, after reports emerged that the ODM candidate, Thomas Mwadeghu, was pushing for the election of Jubilee candidates in the area. The current governor is an independent candidate. Jubilee point-man in Kilifi County, Gideon Mung’aro, is now running to become the governor of the county. He was among the first MPs from the region to leave ODM party for Jubilee, thereby influencing other elected leaders to decamp. President Kenyatta is expected to carry the Lamu vote with a landslide, having received the endorsement of county Governor Issa Timammy of ANC party, a key member of the NASA coalition. All these changes reveal that the Coast region will be a battleground for Uhuru and Raila, unlike in the 2013 elections when the opposition easily won.