Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho at a past event. [Photo: Hassan Joho/ facebook.com]
Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho is continuing to face several challenges in the run up to the August polls.
From the anti-Joho protests over the destruction of Buxton stage kiosks on Monday night to Wednesday’s blacklisting by a group of activists, the ODM deputy party leader faces hard political times in his quest for a second term in office.
With his opponents using his county administration ‘blunders’ for their political gain, Joho's popularity that skyrocketed when he was fighting forgery allegations is now coming down at an alarming rate.
Despite pollsters constantly placing him as the man to beat in the county gubernatorial race, Joho should not sit down and watch as the tide on the ground is slowly turning against him amid claims of poor management of county resources, cronyism and misuse of office.
To add onto the Governor's worries is the chaotic nature of the ODM nominations in the county that left many party supporters disgruntled amid allegations of Joho favouring certain candidates, claims that he has since dismissed.
As if that is not enough, a group of ODM losers in the primaries and other independent candidates in Mombasa have vowed to support Senator Hassan Omar's gubernatorial bid, a move that will further throw Joho's candidature into a spin.
With only two months remaining to the August polls, Joho is facing an intricate political balance.
With his rivals who initially had insignificant support starting to gain ground, the county chief will have to go back to the drawing board to strategise on how to upset the status quo.