Vihiga governor race a rematch between Ottichilo, Akaranga

The Vihiga governor race is shaping into a rematch of the 2017 contest pitting incumbent Wilber Ottichilo and his predecessor Moses Akaranga.

Akaranga was elected the first governor of Vihiga county in 2013 on the PPK ticket. His running mate was Caleb Amaswache. 

In 2017 he lost to Ottichilo of ODM, which was part of the Nasa coalition. 

Akaranga is seeking to recapture the seat. 

Ottichilo is defending the seat on the ODM ticket, which is part of the Azimio coalition.

Akaranga is yet to decide which coalition he will support in the August 9 general election.

Azimio's main challenger is the Kenya Kwanza Alliance led by Deputy President William Ruto.

During the PPK National Delegates Conference in Vihiga, Akaranga said they are yet to settle on which coalition to support.

“We have seen people signing coalition agreements but we as PPK we won’t rush into agreements,” the party leader said.

“When we sign an agreement we must know our stake there, and what is our positions as well considering that those coalitions have their candidates.” 

A number of opinion polls have put Akaranga in the lead.

Ottichilo has, however, rubbished them, saying opinion polls are manipulated.

“Opinion polls are done by human beings. When they decide you are at the top they will do, when they decide you are going to tail they will do so,” he said.

Besides Ottichilo and Akaranga, the race has also attracted Senator George Khaniri of United Democratic Party, Francis Ominde of Federal Party of Kenya and Sabatia MP Alfred Agoi of Amani National Congress.

Ominde has said his party will not support any coalition.

“We shall only work with the government of the day, not political coalitions,” he said.

Ottichilo, who is banking on his development projects, says he will give his opponents a hard time.

“I have achieved 70 percent of development [projects] in my manifesto despite numerous challenges that I have faced in my administration,” he said.

But Senator Khaniri has accused him of not delivering.

“When we were swearing in Governor Wilber Ottichilo, he had the best manifesto that we all knew we are going to have new Vihiga but we have lost,” he said.

“We lost the first five years of devolution and we have lost the second round of devolution. It’s my time to take over and restore what Vihiga people have lost.” 

Agoi, however, thinks Khaniri is the county's major impediment.

 “You can’t be part of the problem that we are suffering from and come back to lie to us, telling us you are going to fix the problem we are having now,” Agoi said.

He said Khaniri failed in his oversight role as the senator and therefore has no capacity to change the county.

Agoi has picked Joyce Mmaitsi as his running mate after his first choice, Vincent Mmaitsi failed to resign on time.

Documents seen by Star show Mmaitsi resigned on May 10, 2022, a month after the February 9 deadline.

Akaranga has picked former Lands and Urban Planning executive Paul Mbuni.

Khaniri has picked engineer Jerald Samoya, while Ominde has picked Wycliffe Chabeya.

Ottichilo has picked Wilberforce Kitiezo as his running mate after falling out with Deputy Governor Patrick Saisi.

Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya