Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho at a past event. [Photo/ the-star.co.ke]
As the clock ticks towards August 8 elections, the Mombasa governor race is gaining unstoppable momentum with incumbent Governor Hassan Joho mounting a spirited fight to save his political career.
His main rival in 2013 Suleiman Shahbal is keen to make amends to his failed bid four years ago.Further, the entry of Senator Hassan Omar into the race has complicated the political arithmetic for the ODM deputy party leader.Besides that, there is also Nyali MP Hezron Awiti who despite being viewed as a political lightweight, he is a serious threat to the incumbent who has been on the political limelight for the better part of the year.However, for Joho, the latest political alignments in the county should worry him as former allies have dumped him for resurgent Omar.Despite enjoying a huge following across the country, many political pundits are backing Omar to produce an upset and deny the incumbent a second term in office.Already, Omar is having a precious head start in the race as all independent candidates in the county have vowed to back him.Considering the tribal nature of Kenyan politics, Omar is a favourite to bag majority of the votes from the members of the Kamba community, thanks to his choice of the Wiper Party.The Kamba constitute the second largest voting bloc in Mombasa.To further dent Joho’s re-election bid is the decision by the members of the Luo Union to withdraw their support for the firebrand politician.Awiti is a favourite to bag majority of the Luo votes with Omar also keen to get a chunk of those votes.All the four top contenders have almost an equal chance to bag the Mijikenda votes.The Mijikenda is the single largest voting block in Mombasa constituting over 50 per cent of the 580,000 registered voters in the county.Whatever happens, the Mombasa governor race is a tough contest to call and for Joho, his political clout in the county politics will be tested.