Mombasa Women Rep-elect Aisha Hussein receiving her certificate from Mombasa County Returning Officer Wanjiku Kariuki on Saturday August 12, 2017. [Photo: Hassan Joho/ facebook.com]
Mombasa Women Representative-elect Asha Hussein Mohamed is finally fulfilling her political dreams after operating under the shadows of Likoni MP-elect Mishi Mboko over the past four years.
After losing to Mboko during the ODM nominations four years ago, the soft-spoken Asha got a slot in the County Assembly when her party nominated her.When Mboko, the outgoing Women Rep, announced her intentions to vie for the Likoni MP seat, Asha was the obvious choice to take over from her.However, she had to overcome another hurdle, the nominations, as several aspirants lined up for the precious ODM ticket.She would later trounce them to inch closer to clinching the seat, thanks to ODM's popularity in the county.An experienced debutante in elective politics, Asha who has honed her political skills over the years by working for political heavyweights in the county including former Mvita MP Najib Balala and Governor Hassan Joho, finally won the seat during the August 8 elections by a huge margin.Some of her opponents included; Amina Abdallah of Jubilee, an experienced politician who had been in parliament for 15 years as a nominated MP and Zamzam Mohamed of Wiper.She may not be as combative and outspoken as her predecessor, but Asha is a new political force in Mombasa, a county that has seen women rise in politics after many years of dominance by men.