Deputy President William Ruto, Tourism CS Najib Balala, former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar and President Uhuru Kenyatta at a past event. [Photo/ PSCU]
Tourism CS Najib Balala and former Senator Hassan Omar’s ineptitude is to blame for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s dismal performance in Mombasa during the October 26 repeat presidential election, Anania Mwaboza has said. Mwaboza said the two leaders failed the Jubilee Party during the exercise despite receiving overwhelming support from supporters and leaders who were backing Uhuru Kenyatta for another term in office. The vocal politician argued that the two wanted to ride on the back of businessman Suleiman Shahbal and Karisa Nzai. “Their clout was overhyped for nothing. They want to ride on Suleiman Shahbal, Karisa Nzai and their sweat,” said Mwaboza.Jubilee garnered 78,000 votes in the repeat poll compared to the 99,190 the party got in the August 8 election. Mwaboza opined that Uhuru should have garnered at least 150,000 votes following Jubilee’s extensive inroads in the region. Mwaboza, who was Shabal’s running mate in the August 8 election, asked Balala and Omar to explain why the President’s votes in the region dropped.“Where are Sarai (Omar) and Balala’s votes? Balala should tell us why we were minus 21,000 votes out of the 99,000 we got in August?” asked Mwaboza, as quoted by The Star.Mwaboza said he teamed up with Shahbal to fight the opposition poll boycott calls in the county and faulted Omar and Balala for not doing enough to woo residents to vote for Uhuru.“We mistakenly thought they would top up the August numbers to about 150,000. We didn’t see them. They said they would oversee the entire county, they didn’t,” he added.
Omar and Balala have however dismissed the claims, arguing that Uhuru's performance in the county is commendable considering the circumstances.