Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi has said he will only support ODM Raila Odinga’s presidential bid if he will not field candidates against his newly launched Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) party.
While calling on the residents to vote for candidates vying on his PAA party, Kingi said the move would help his outfit to have higher bargaining power.
He said it is through having more parliamentary seats that the people of Kilifi and the coast, in general, will benefit from the government that would be formed by the former prime minister.
“Kumfanya Raila kuwa rais sio hoja, hoja ni kuwa na manufaa ndani ya serikali ya Raila. Kule juu tutakufa na wewe lakini kuanzia gavana mpaka MCA atuwachie sisi wenyewe,”
Loosely translated to “Making Raila president is not a big deal, the issue is we need to have higher bargaining power within the government that would be formed by him. We will support him for the presidency but for governorship down to MCA would be reserved for our party,” he said.
Kingi, who is serving his second and final constitutional term as the governor told Kilifi residents that it would be so hard for them to benefit from Raila’s government if his party does not have enough Members of Parliament to push for better reforms.
This comes less than a week after the PAA Party signed a cooperation agreement with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party.
In a statement, Kingi said the pact is a step in PAA’s quest to bring the coast region to the national political bargaining table.
“The objective of the cooperation agreement that PAA has signed today is to pave way for a structured dialogue process leading to the signing of a pre-election agreement,
“The cooperation agreement has therefore granted PAA an opportunity to take to the national negotiating table the three main issues that PAA advocates,” Kingi said in a statement.
