• Star established President backed Oparanya when he met some governors last Tuesday in Mombasa, saying he was happy with his CoG leadership.
• Most second-term governors are said to be fully behind Oparanya and so are those backing the BBI.
Image: CALISTUS LUCHETU
President Uhuru Kenyatta may be backing Wycliffe Oparanya to retain his position at the helm of the Council of Governors.
They vote on Monday.
The support — communicated to some governors — is likely to hand the Kakamega governor an easy ride for a second term as chairman of the powerful body bringing together all the 47 county bosses.
The Star has established that the President vouched for Oparanya when he met some governors last Tuesday in Mombasa, saying he was happy with his leadership at CoG.
"It is a done deal that Oparanya will retain his position. The President expressed confidence in him and said it was important that we allow the status quo to remain," a second-term governor from Nyanza told the Star.
With the President's backing coupled with that from ODM boss Raila Odinga, Oparanya is likely to retain his seat.
Most second-term governors are said to be fully behind Oparanya and so are those backing the Building Bridges Initiative report.
Battle lines are drawn between most second-term county chiefs and pro-BBI governors against some first-term governors and those opposed to the report.
The President's support of Oparanya is a big blow to Deputy President William Ruto's efforts to remove the Kakamega boss from the CoG helm.
Oparanya is a leading backer of BBI, a political process that the DP has personally opposed, terming the pro-BBI rallies as a waste of public resources.
The DP's allies had initially lined up Mandera's Ali Roba as Oparanya's possible replacement but the Northern Kenya county chief on Sunday said he was not interested.
Through his chief of staff David Ohito, Roba said he will support Oparanya.
"For the record, Governor Roba is not running for any position at the CoG and will throw his support behind Oparanya. He is not aligned to any other camp," Ohito told the Star on the phone.
Until Sunday, the DP's allies, the Star established, were consulting on their preferred candidate.
However, Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago would be seeking the vice chairperson's position currently held by Mwangi wa Iria (Murang'a).
The governors will vote at Nairobi's Movenpick hotel, even as it emerged that they were on seeking a consensus on Sunday to avoid a split during the election.
Last year, Oparanya's election nearly led to a nasty split at the council after Salim Mvurya (Kwale) bitterly protested, saying his own bid to succeed Josphat Nanok (Turkana) was overlooked.
“I was not involved in the election because the position we had taken earlier had shifted. I question the integrity of the election,” Mvurya said last year on January 17.
There were allegations that the Kwale boss might have been a victim of the handshake deal between Uhuru and Raila.
On Monday Governors will also pick chairpersons and vice-chairpersons for 1 technical committees.
Some of the committees include Human Resource and Labour, Finance and Economic Planning, Communication and ICT, Legal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations and Health.
Others are Agriculture, Infrastructure and energy, Urban development and Lands, security and foreign relations, Trade Industry and Investment, resource mobilisation among others.
"The Council of Governors will hold a full council meeting on January 20 where it will deliberate on critical issues concerning the council and thereafter conduct its annual elections," the council secretariat said in a statement on Sunday.
Edited by R.Wamochie