Former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar has dismissed flamboyant city politician Mike Sonko’s entry into the Mombasa gubernatorial race.
Omar, who is vying for the seat on the UDA ticket, said he was not worried by Sonko’s move to announce his intention to succeed Hassan Joho in this year’s General Election.
“Mimi siamini kama Azimio wako na mgombea yeyote wa ugavana ambaye anaweza kufua dafu kwetu na kwa timu hii. Ni vikaragosi, tested and failed,” he said.
Loosely translated to: “I don’t believe that Azimio la Umoja coalition has any gubernatorial candidate that can beat us. They are puppets who have been tested and failed.”
Omar, who is William Ruto’s point man in the coast region said they were only afraid of Suleiman Shahbal who recently stepped down in favor of Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir.
He said they were expecting a serious battle from Suleiman Shahbal because they knew he was the strongest candidate from the Azimio’s team.
“We would have heard a very interesting political discourse. Our teams were in high gear because we thought Shahbal was our likely opponent so we were getting our economic, issues right but still, he would have lost against us
“We have a lot of respect for him as a person. He would have given us a good contest but Abdulswamad…,” Omar said.
Omar who was handed a UDA direct ticket is expected to battle it out with Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir of ODM and former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko.
Sonko who was impeached in 2020 is set for a political comeback after the Kalonzo Musyoka-led Wiper Democratic Movement party last week cleared him for nominations in the Mombasa Governor race.
Sonko said that he was interested in running for the Nairobi Governorship but his sponsoring party wanted him to run in Mombasa.
“I am really interested in going for Nairobi Governor a second time but some agents of the party are pushing otherwise,” Sonko said.
