As President-elect William Ruto gets ready to assume office, he is set to have new faces from Coast region in his inner circle.
From fiery defenders of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga to his harshest critics, former governors Amason Kingi (Kilifi) and Salim Mvurya (Kwale) are now the men to watch in the region.
The latest political developments mean outgoing Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, who has been engaged in supremacy battles with his two former colleagues, is caged for now.
Their rise is likely to upset the plans of the current leadership, depending on how they choose to deploy their new-found influence in the region. Mr Kingi and Mr Mvurya defied the ODM wave in Coast by campaigning against it, not as contestants but as county bosses eyeing national positions after exhausting their constitutional two-term limit.
Kenya Kwanza Alliance is fronting Mr Kingi for the Senate Speaker position, while Mr Mvurya could be considered for Cabinet Secretary.
If they get the positions, it would signal that they enjoy the confidence of the President-elect and would be incorporated into the inner sanctums of power and given a front-row seat in the Ruto administration.
Unless Dr Ruto rewards the two by appointing them to state jobs, they will not have much influence in the region, said political analyst Prof Halimu Shauri.
The Pwani University lecturer said Mr Kingi failed to deliver the Kilifi governor’s seat, which his party lost to ODM’s Gideon Mung’aro.
Prof Shauri also argued that Mr Kingi failed to support United Democratic Alliance’s (UDA) Aisha Jumwa and instead backed a candidate from his party Pamoja African Alliance (PAA), George Kithi, who lost.
Unlike Mr Kingi, Mr Mvurya managed to deliver the Kwale governor’s seat to UDA, increasing the party’s number on the Council of Governors and thus its influence, said political analyst Maimuna Mwidau.
“Mr Mvurya will have more influence but at the county level. For his part, Mr Kingi is a partner in Kenya Kwanza but did not deliver votes to the alliance,” Ms Mwidau said.
Coast region does not have a political kingpin who can marshal the support of the region at the national level, she argued.
Mr Joho’s influence, she added, is limited to ODM and, with the change of guard in national politics, the Orange party will not feature anywhere as Dr Ruto has rejected collaborating with his opponents.
However, Mr Kingi and Mr Mvurya are now expected to call the shots as they will have Dr Ruto’s ear, exploiting their proximity to power that earned them a place at the helm of the Kenya Kwanza coalition.
Known for its political fragmentation, Coast has never had a strong political leader who could offer guidance on weighty national issues.
But with the exit of Mr Joho, whose political future was largely hinged on the outcome of the President Kenyatta succession, the Kingi-Mvurya political axis in the region has had its profile boosted substantially by the success of Dr Ruto.
Mr Joho, however, insisted that the Coast is still an ODM zone.
“A cursory look at the number of MPs and MCAs reveals that we still have the numbers. We are happy people despite the outcome [of the presidential election].”
“Those attempting to make people believe that the coast is not our stronghold should know it remains as such,” Mr Joho said.
A President’s inner circle has a bearing on his policies and decisions as he relies on this set of official and unofficial advisers to shape policy, politics and the direction of the country.
Mr Kingi and Mr Mvurya seem to have schemed well to spread their wings across the region and lock out potent competition from key rivals.
The victory of Mr Mvurya’s deputy Fatuma Achani as Kwale governor under UDA and parliamentary seats in Msambweni (Feisal Bader), PAA wins in Rabai (Anthony Mupe) and Ganze (Ken Charo) and six of the 35 Kilifi MCAs are warning shots to Mr Odinga.
The wins give some footing for UDA and PAA in the opposition-leaning region. Dr Ruto’s efforts to win over voters in the Coast region were boosted by a number of leaders such Mr Kingi and Mr Mvurya. Dr Ruto received 336,478 votes in the region’s six counties of Mombasa, Lamu, Tana River, Kwale, Kilifi and Taita Taveta.
The tally was an increase from the 287,606 votes that Jubilee — under which President Kenyatta and DP Ruto won the presidency — received in the region in 2017, and higher than the 158,083 the two got in 2013.
