Just as Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua on Thursday evening formally parted ways with the Wiper Movement by launching his new party, Maendeleo Chap Chap, the battle for the gubernatorial has seen key aspirants seeking to forge a common front against him.
It now remains to be seen whether Mutua who rebelled against Wiper party that sponsored him to power will withstand the strong political storm.
His opponents seem to have united in a move billed as the only way to send the Governor home in spite of people outside Machakos regarding him as the "best-performing governor in the country oblivious of the challenges Machakos people go through everyday.
Mutua's deputy Bernard Kiala, former Kathiani MP Wavinya Ndeti and an East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) MP Peter Mathuki have all declared their interest in becoming the next governor of Ukambani’s richest county.
Chama Cha Uzalendo (CCU) party leader Ms Wavinya was Mutua’s fiercest challenger in the 2013 General Election where she later unsuccessfully petitioned the latter's election on claims that he was “unlawfully elected.”
Kiala also fell out with his boss after the governor accused him of holding clandestine meetings with MCAs in a bid to oust him. These two aspirants together with Mr. Mathuki are rolling up their sleeves and have declared a political war against Mutua, who won the 2013 election by a landslide.
Recently, both Wavinya and Kiala maintained they were in the race and indicated that they were not opposed to the idea of working together.
“I am firmly in the race for Machakos governor but that fact does not mean I should play in isolation. For me, the common goal would be to forge unity for Machakos residents and by extension the Kamba community,” said Wavinya.
“It is not about Wavinya or Kiala, but about our political parties. Kiala is in Wiper and I am in CCU. I would not be opposed to inter-parties consultations towards that end,” said the former Youth Affairs Assistant Minister when asked whether she would join forces with Kiala in order to beat Mutua as widely speculated.
Evidently, Dr Mutua has taken a political risk with the decision to defend his seat on a different party. Does he worry about this opposition wave? He claimed he wasn't, because he believed the people of Machakos are not gullible. Are they not the same people who have accused him of "Cinema" PR and uncompleted projects?
Meanwhile, journalists were Thursday enraged by his utterances in the auditorium at the Bomas of Kenya after he asked his security guards to throw them out, and used the word "nyonga" which translates to strangle.