Coastal Kenya has always been considered Raila Odinga’s stronghold but Raila is slowly losing grip of the region as indicated in the recent general elections.
The region is comprised of Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu and Taita Taveta counties.
Despite the fact that Raila led with 645,913 votes in the recent general elections, all evidence points that his popularity is taking a deep. In 2017, the former prime minister won 801,031 votes.
On the other hand, his main competitor, William Ruto garnered 336,478 votes. In the previous elections, when he worked with President Uhuru Kenyatta, Jubilee managed to 287,606 votes and that only means that he is improving and maybe by 2027, he would be enjoying 50% of the votes from the region.
Ruto applied several strategies for him to get to where he he is first by winning over some of the key politician in the region including the now former governors Salim Mvurya of Kwale and Amason Kingi of Kilifi. He initially won the likes of former Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa, Nyali MP Mohammed Ali, former Mombasa senator Hassan Omar among others.
Aside from that, the president elect ensured that he fields candidates especially in counties that are ODM stronghold such as Mombasa although Mombasa are yet to vote for their preferred governor. In Kilifi, he had Jumwa face off ODM’s Gideon Mung’aro.
ODM has been the dominant party in the region and some of the locals were tired of that. So, to win their support Ruto backed some of the independent candidates and did not force parties that were just rising to merge with UDA, thus allowing them to grow on their own.
In his campaigns, Ruto also told the coastal people that Raila had deserted them and that he is the only one who had their best interests at heart.
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