Mombasa Deputy Governor William Kingi’s political ambition to succeed his boss Hassan Joho backfired after he emerged distant fourth in Monday’s election.
Dr Kingi managed 712 votes in the poll which Abdulswamad Nassir of ODM won with 119,083 votes according to provisional results followed by Hassan Omar of UDA with 98,108.
Former Nyali MP Awiti Bolo was third with 875 according to the results yet to be officially announced by the Independent, Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
Dr Kingi’s performance in the governor race has exposed the curious relationship between county bosses and their deputies.
Mr Joho sidestepped the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) lecturer to endorse Mr Nassir even before the ODM party held nominations.
Also at a rally in Mombasa’s Tononoka Grounds, party leader Raila Odinga also ignored him when he paraded Mr Nassir and businessman Suleiman Shahbal who by then was in the Mombasa governor race.
When it became clear that the ODM flag bearer would be singled out from the two, Dr Kingi joined the Pamoja African Alliance (PAA).
Ahead of the 2017 polls, Governor Joho picked Dr Kingi after his then Deputy Hazel Katana quit ODM and joined the Jubilee Party.
Until his appointment, he was the Founding Dean School of Business at the Technical University of Mombasa.
Dr Kingi went ahead and picked Amin Jama Roble as his deputy.
But their political journey has not been easy.
In June, he claimed to face intimidation and harassment from the county inspectorate officers.
Dr Kingi raised concerns about receiving threats to surrender cars assigned to him by the county government.
“I am shocked how one can send 20 county inspectorate officers to my house to confiscate cars that I am entitled to. It is my right to have the vehicles because I am still the serving Deputy Governor of Mombasa,” said Dr Kingi.
“Nobody alerted me that they will be seizing the official cars. They just showed up at my house at a time when my family was present, that is inappropriate. The county officers said they had received an order from the governor. But Mr Joho did not call me or notify me of the same. I want to believe it was not an order from him,” said Dr Kingi.
He also hit out at his own administration, led by Governor Joho, for not improving the county’s business environment.
“Mombasa businesspeople should stop being hopeless. That is the change we want to bring by advocating for reforms in the business sector.
“I’ll also deal with issues affecting tourism, especially the economic dent brought about by Covid-19,” Dr Kingi told traders in Nyali during the launch of his manifesto. BY DAILY NATION