ODM party leader Raila Odinga has differed with Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi over calls to come up with a coast-based political party ahead of the 2022 general elections. Odinga has asked Coast leaders to stop the clamour for a regional party at a time when they are working to unite the country through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
Odinga was in Ganze, Kilifi County on his third day of the coastal tour where he urged Kingi to stop calls of formation of a regional party, saying such a move will only create ethnicity.
Campaigns to come up with a coast-based political party dominated ODM party leader Raila Odinga’s Wednesday tour of Kilifi County, at a time when Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi has put up a spirited fight to unite the region behind a single party ahead of next year’s general elections.
Kingi who is completing his second term in office as a county boss, welcomed to Ganze his party leader Odinga, but the two failed to agree on issues clamour for a regional party at a time when they are working to unite the country through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
In his speech, Kingi maintained that all the six counties of the coastal region should support one party, a statement that did not go well with Odinga who argued that the idea of regional parties has outlived its usefulness.
The ODM party has been receiving overwhelming support from the coastal region and the entrance of Deputy President William Ruto in the region and also clamour for a regional party threatens ODM’s popularity and could give Ruto a lee way ahead of the 2022 polls.
The party boasts of three governors, Amason Kingi of Kilifi, Mombasa county’s Ali Hassan Joho and Tana River’s Dado Godana, and has been coating Granton Samboja of Taita Taveta and Fahim Twaha of Lamu to join the bandwagon through the BBI.
Odinga, accompanied by other ODM leaders in the coastal region, campaigned for the BBI, and tore down the deputy president’s wheelbarrow narrative, saying it has nothing good for the people of the coast.