Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho. [Photo/ standardmedia.co.ke]
The rise of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho to become Coast’s political kingpin has been phenomenal. But how much do you know about his political journey?
Joho's political story dates back to 2004 August when the then Minister of Tourism and Kisauni MP Karisa Maitha collapsed and died while in a press conference in Germany.
The battle to succeed him was titanic as 11 aspirants emerged to inherit his seat.
However, two aspirants were the front runners in the by-election; Ananiah Mwaboza and Hassan Joho.
Already, NARC was troubled with Raila Odinga's LDP wing and Mwai Kibaki's NAK embroiled in an intricate web of power play politics. And for that matter, the by-election boiled down to be a show of might between Raila and Kibaki.
During the nominations, Joho beat Mwaboza, a lawyer, to fly the NARC flag.
But determined to run, Mwaboza jumped ship to join little-known National Labour Party (NLP) and with the blessing of powerful politicians who were allied to Kibaki's wing including Morris Dzoro (Kaloleni), Joseph Kingi (Ganze), Kivutha Kibwana (Makueni) and Paul Muite (Kabete), Mwaboza won the by-elections after garnering 8,374 votes against Joho's 7,293.
Joho challenged the results in court but his appeal was dismissed. However, he never lost hope as he would make a political statement in 2007.
Joho remained loyal to Raila and with the formation of ODM, he was the party's automatic choice to fly the party flag in Kisauni in the 2007 elections where he announced his official entry into politics with a resounding win against Mwaboza, his fiercest rival.
Since then, there was no looking back and he quickly became a formidable political force in Mombasa, as he easily won the gubernatorial race in 2013 after beating his closest rival Suleiman Shahbal by a wide margin to become the first Governor of Mombasa.
Joho has now set his eyes on the Presidency come 2022.