The win of Feisal Bader in the just concluded Msambweni by-election has catapulted Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya to the top of Coast politics and at the same defining what could be the decline of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho in the regional politics. – By Ramadhan Kambi.
Me Bader who now replaces the late Suleiman Dori vied as an Independent candidate but had the support of Governor Mvurya and Deputy President William Ruto.
Mr Bader was declared the new Msambweni MP-elect after garnering 15,251 votes in the by-election that was highly contested.
On early Wednesday , the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Returning Officer Yusuf Abubakar, declared Mr Bader the winner and issued him with an election certificate.
Mr Bader’s main rival, ODM’s Omar Boga, came in second with 10,444 votes.
Although the constituency has 69,003 registered voters, those who cast their votes were 27,313 as the voter turnout stood at 39.5 per cent.
Political analysts believe that the presence of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho might have forced the locals to rethink their support for Mr Boga following the Mombasa governor’s confrontational kind of politics.
Even with the presence of ODM leader Raila Odinga, Msambweni electorates were never swayed away and they made sure that their thoughts and decision goes unperturbed.
Again the locals believed that Mr Boga, was a project of the Mombasa Governor and that electing him, would mean giving a clearance for manipulation by Mr Joho.
At Nganja village during one of the campaigns, the locals referred to Mr Boga as a Mombasa candidate, definitely connecting him to his association with the Mombasa Governor.
But it is in this by-election that has again propelled Governor Mvurya to the top of the regional politics, fronting himself as among the new emerging coasty political kingpins.
He campaigned for Feisal and in all his engagement with the people, talked about voting for a candidate who has the interests of the Msambweni people at heart.
In 2013, Governor Mvurya was elected as the first Governor on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket but decamped to Jubilee and won on the party ticket in the 2017 General Election.
Since then, Kwale has slowly been sliding away from the Orange Democratic Movement dorminance. Currently ODM has only one MP in the county. Matuga MP Kassim Tandaza wa elected on Amani National Congress (ANC) ticket in 2017.
Lunga Lunga MP Khatibu Mwashetani was elected on a Jubilee ticket. The late Dori was an ODM MP but who had crossed to Jubilee while Kinango MP Benjamin Tayari although an ODM MP has been warming up to the DP Ruto’s Tanga Tanga team.
In the recent by-election he campaigned for Mr Feisal and he has now been summoned to appear before the party leadership to show cause why he campaigned for another candidate.
The other dynamics in the just concluded Msambweni by-election was about how ODM planned its team. Boga had the support in urban centres like Ukunda but this support lacked in most rural Msambweni where majority of the voters are.
With the by-election over, it is now a new normal in politics because voters would rather now vote for an individual and not about the influence of the political parties.
The people of Msambweni highly believed that Mr Bader being fronted by Governor Mvurya was the ideal person and not Mr Boga who was being fronted by a foreigner. Governor Mvurya in his strategic campaigns insisted on the people to vote for Mr Feisal so that he could team up with him to push for development.
With Governor Mvurya’s development record showing an excellent trend in Kwale, it was easy for the community to buy his idea that the person he was fronting was the best for him.
