A political fever is likely to rock Kitui county after former Governor Julius Malombe and lawyer Wilfred Mati declared interest in governor and senator seats in 2022.
Malombe on Friday said he will seek to reclaim the Kitui governorship, which he lost to Charity Ngilu in 2017.
Mati, an advocate at the High Court, said he will run for the senatorial seat currently held by Enoch Wambua.
Addressing about 1,000 leaders from Kitui South at his Ithiani home in Kitui Central, Malombe accepted the request to seek to dislodge Ngilu in 2022.
The delegation included politicians, opinion leaders and clergy. They were led by Esther Musau and former Kitui South MP Mwangu Ivuti. Also in the group were Kitui South politicians Micheal Kivoto and Daniel Mutua.
Speakers apologised to Malombe for the “mistake” the Kitui people made by voting him out in 2017.
They beseeched him to vie again in 2022, promising to overwhelmingly vote him back into office.
Malombe responded by saying, “If that is the wish of the people of Kitui, who am I to decline? I am ready to take up the challenge since I will be making a return on public demand. I recognise that as the Kitui people, you have now learnt your lesson after voting me out of office.”
Separately, in a meeting in Kandwia village in Mwingi North, lawyer Mati said on Saturday he will throw his hat in the ring in 2022 and run for senator. “All I am asking for is your support when the time comes,” he told residents.
Mati said the current governor of Kitui and the senator come from the larger Kitui half of the county, but in future, there must be a balance to ensure the two top county positions are shared among the two divides.
Ngilu is from Kitui Central subcounty while Wambua is from the neighbouring Kitui West subcounty.
“By advocating for equity in leadership, we want a situation where the governor comes from the larger Kitui region and the Senator from larger Mwingi region and vice versa,’ Mati said.
