During one of his campaign trails shortly before the August 8, 2017 general elections, Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho slammed President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto, a day after they wrapped their campaign tour of the larger coast region.
Uhuru and Ruto traversed various counties in the Coast on a weekend including Mombasa, Kilifi, Lamu, and Tana River, campaigning for their re-election.
They criticised ODM's Joho and his Kilifi counterpart Amason Kingi, saying they had failed residents terribly, and engaged in corruption deals.
However, Joho hit back at the duo on a Thursday, warning them against intimidating and warning Coast opposition leaders.
He said it was bad for the president and his deputy to visit the Coast, and fail to implement development projects, contrary to what they do when they visit different areas.
Joho said it was evident that Uhuru had no interest in improving lives of the coastal people, but rather engage in war of words with their leaders.
"You can not come to coast to insult and attack opposition leaders. When you visit this region, you only come with insults but you take development projects and billions of shillings to other different regions," Joho said, citing to the two leaders.
"Stop intimidating and talking about me. I am not your child!" added the ODM deputy party leader who was seeking re-election amid rivalry from Jubilee party's Suleiman Shahbal.