The contest between businessman Suleiman Shahbal and former Kisauni MP Anania Mwaboza over who should be handed the Jubilee Party ticket for the Mombasa gubernatorial race intensified on Friday after a section of leaders of the populous Mijikenda community endorsed the latter.
The leaders said Mwaboza was their preferred candidate for the position of Governor in the August 8 polls and asked him not to withdraw his bid in favour of Shahbal.
Reading a press statement on their behalf, spokesman Jonas Okwaro said the community’s members have faith in Mwaboza to bring peace and tranquility in the coastal county.
Okwaro said Mwaboza, a former MP for Kisauni constituency, was capable of bringing social and economic development in the area. “Mwaboza has what it takes and the goodwill of majority of the indigenous communities to deliver the seat for Jubilee,” he said.
This came even as a Mombasa women’s leader, Maryam Ali, urged Jubilee Party’s leadership to desist from imposing candidates on the electorates at the forthcoming elections.
She said Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko and Nairobi Women’s Representative Rachel Shebesh were behind machinations to impose Shahbal as the JP candidate in Mombasa.
She warned that the imposition of candidates on the electorate would spell doom for the ruling coalition in the county.
