Five rebel Mombasa ODM ward reps have said they are still firmly in the party despite their dalliance with Deputy President William Ruto.
MCAs Charles Kitula (Freretown), Fahad Kassim (Mjambere), Athman Shebe (Jomvuu Kuu), Faith Mwende (Kipevu) and Abrary Omar (Kongowea) met Ruto at his Karen residence on Tuesday.
They were joined by Ruto allies Nyali MP Mohamed Ali and former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar.
Kitula said the meeting with Ruto was meant to bring development to Mombasa county.
He told the Star by phone that his team has not left the ODM party but are working together with Ruto for the county’s growth.
“We are working with William Ruto just like our governor is working with President Uhuru Kenyatta. This has nothing to do with us moving to Jubilee Party from ODM,” Kitula said.
Kitula said that they made the move due to a lack of cooperation from Governor Hassan Joho.
“We have never had a roundtable meeting with our governor to discuss issues concerning our residents in the last three years of his leadership,” Kitula said.
He said with the support of the deputy president, they will better serve the residents of Mombasa, including women and youth.
The MCA said many more ward reps were willing to work with Ruto.
“We are more than 14 people who want to work with Ruto for the betterment of our county but others are still in fear and so they are working in privacy. They have businesses and building constracts so they are afraid of intimidation from the county leaders,” Kitula said.
Shebe said that he decided to take the direction to serve the people well and stand with the truth.
"We have not moved to Jubilee; we are in ODM to stay. We have freedom of choosing who we want to work with in the spirit of the handshake,” he said.
Shebe said that the five “rebels” have been isolated by the county government ad were kicked out of all assembly committees.
“When we attended the meeting, we did not go with our personal issues but matters concerning our people. Ruto promised to chip in and we are looking forward to getting positive feedback in the next two to three weeks,” Shebe said.
Deputy speaker Fadhili Makarani said that the meeting has no impact on the county politics and the assembly.
“If the meeting could have involved Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale MCAs, we could have had a question in terms of the political arena but this one only involved a few MCAs. We can say they paid a courtesy visit to their leader,” Makarani said.
