Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi is under pressure to drop his political party- Pamoja African Alliance, if at all he wants to support ODM leader Raila Odinga.
A section of ODM politicians in Kilifi has welcomed Kingi to Azimio la Umoja Movement, but with conditions that he drops his mission of building a coastal party because it will not bear fruits.
Led by ODM chairman in Kilifi County Teddy Mwambire, the political leaders said the region is an ODM zone.
Last week, Kingi declared that he will support Raila’s Azimio la Umoja, but he was not present at Kasarani.
Mwambire spoke during the commissioning of two school projects including the refurbishment of six classrooms at Bahati and completion of two new classrooms, one two-door latrine, and 107 desks at Yembe primary school in his constituency.
He said Kilifi was an ODM stronghold and would not support any candidate from PAA adding that the government should concentrate on national politics or else he would continue losing popularity in the grassroots.
Kingi rose to popularity through the support of Raila from the time he was elected MP after the former Prime Minister gave him two ministries before helping him to become the first governor of the county under the devolved system of governance in 2013.
The governor is now finishing his second and final term and critics feel the idea of forming a party is meant to fulfill his personal interests.
"Governor Kingi left a bit and as a chicken farmer you must understand that when the Cock is removed for three days upon return it will face resistance from the cock left behind so Kingi said he did not want the orange but when he went there his throat developed problems and said he would drink the orange juice but not the orange itself," he said.
He said Kingi should go for the presidency if he was really serious as he would not rip any votes at the county of Kilifi under his PAA Party.
Mwambire said they are ready to sign a memorandum of understanding with him but strictly based on the national politics only if he wanted to earn respect as the first governor of Kilifi as the incoming governor would be from the ODM party.
Already he said ODM has four candidates for Governor, at least three parliamentary aspirants from each constituency, and many others vying for the Ward representative position in all the 35 wards.
Currently, the legislator said Raila listens more to him as the chairman than Kingi who betrayed the ODM party.
"I have no problem with him let him come house him but the party of choice here in Kilifi is ODM," he said.
Mwambire said Kingi is going round looking for candidates for his PAA party while others many joined ODM.
He said Kingi should stop wasting time with his party as each day his popularity was going down.
"Let him come back home we will give him a chance to be the striker, I can even remain on the bench to let him be the striker as I lay strategies to ensure Baba wins the presidency and all the seats in Kilifi are conquered by ODM," he said.
The ODM chairman said he would have given Kingi his seat during the Azimio la Umoja convention if he thought there was no seat for him.
To him what he did was wrong by not attending the Kasarani meeting being a party leader as other party leaders were present.
"Personally I have no problem for his not coming because I was there and I represented Kilifi well am his leader in Kilifi county after all he has not even launched his party officially he is just going around with a piece of paper terming it a party," he said.
Kingi formed his own party which he termed as a vehicle to unite the coastal region that would push the development agenda at the National level.
However, of late, he has been receiving criticism from the local level as people feel that the timing of forming PAA was wrong and miscalculated as it is seen as a scheme for his political survival after completing his second and last term.
*This article was written by Ramadhan Kambi for Uzalendo News. Email: uzalendonews24@gmail.com to submit your story.
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