Renowned Mombasa tycoon Suleiman Shahbal has officially ditched the ruling Jubilee Party for Raila’s ODM as the season of political realignment heats up ahead of the 2022 General Election.
In a letter to Jubilee party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju on Wednesday, July 7, the businessman thanked the Party for offering him support during his tenure as a member of the ruling outfit.
“In exercise of my constitution and legal rights to belong to a political party of my choice and guided by the law through section 14 of the Political Parties Acts, 2011, I wish to resign as a member of Jubilee Party,” Shahbal said.
This comes barely days after the Mombasa tycoon took to Facebook announcing that he had officially joined the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
Shahbal vied for the Mombasa gubernatorial position in 2017 on a Jubilee ticket but lost to ODM deputy party leader Hassan Joho.
Suleiman Shahba entry to the orange party to vie for a gubernetorial seat is expected to cause political jitters in Raila’s camp as Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir and Mombasa Senator Mohamed Faki both ODM diehards have also expressed interest in the seat.
His move to ditch the ruling outfit comes about two weeks after Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu warned that the party could lose more valuable players if urgent measures to salvage the ‘collapsing’ party are not instituted.
“As things stand I will not be surprised if we lose another one or two more valuable players. We have some heavy lifting ahead to fix our party and not everyone will want to do it,” he said.
Wambugu said this after Kiambu Woman Rep Gathoni Wamuchomba switched her allegiance from Uhuru’s Kieleweke to DP Ruto’s Tanga Tanga movement.
