Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi has revealed why he abandoned Deputy President William Ruto for Raila Odinga.
On Friday, December 10, Maangi who was a staunch supporter of William Ruto in the larger Nyanza region pulled a surprise when he attended Raila’s Azimio la Umoja at the Kasarani Stadium where the ODM leader announced his 2022 presidential candidature.
Maangi’s attendance to Raila’s Azimio la Umoja came barely two days after the Kisii Deputy Governor skipped William Ruto’s rallies in Marani, Nyaribari Masaba, and Bobasi constituencies in Kisii County.
Speaking on Saturday, December 18, Maangi revealed that he ditched William Ruto for Raila because he wanted the whole Nyanza region to vote as a bloc to steer Raila to the presidency.
Maangi who in October accused the government of frustrating Ruto’s allies, including himself, with unnecessary arrests criticized the deputy president saying he was only after protecting people from his region.
“If you look at other people they are organizing themselves to vote as a bloc to protect their own, now we as the people of Nyanza, why can’t we protect our own? And our own is none other than Raila Odinga,” Maangi said.
Maangi who is seeking to succeed Kisii Governor James Ongwa further said he needs to politically realign to increase his chances of winning the Kisii gubernatorial seat in 2022.
Speaking to the Standard, Maangi said, in as much as he’d have loved to popularise the Bottom-Up Economic Model in the Kisii region, “the ground” had advised him to go back to his roots – Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
“I have always been in ODM…You know what it means to be in ODM Party in the Kisii region,” he said.
The Kisii deputy governor vowed to drum up support for Raila to succeed retiring President Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2022 General Election.
