ODM candidates in Mombasa, Kwale struggling to finance campaigns

ODM Party candidates in Mombasa and Kwale Counties are struggling to fund their campaigns after people who pledged support, including Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho, pulled out of bankrolling them.

In Mombasa, most of the candidates for MCA seats were hand-picked by Joho, many of them very unpopular on the ground which is now causing serious panic among the orange party supporters that they may lose to other candidates.

“Gov. Joho is not financing anyone. He promised but the help has not come and many ODM nominees may just lose because of lack of resources,” a source told Kahawa Tungu.

So bad is the situation that many MCA nominees are now being funded by Jubilee’s Suleiman Shabhal and Wiper’s Hassan Omar.

What this has caused is that many of the aspirants are now decampaigning Joho, the ODM gubernatorial candidate.

Mombasa County has also been hit by the proliferation of independent candidates, many who initially supported ODM Party but were either rigged out or saw no chance surviving around Joho.

In Kwale, ODM is facing serious voter apathy and rejection as both Jubilee and Wiper and smaller coast-based parties face up to the once giant orange.

A source told Kahawa Tungu that ODM Kwale Gubernatorial candidate Dr. Issa Chipera is totally under-resourced having been promised funding by Joho.

Chipera is running against the more resourced and incumbent governor Salim Mvurya and Wiper’s Chirau Ali Mwakwere, a veteran politician.