• Their main competitors, James Orengo of the ODM party and Independent candidate William Otieno Ochieng are yet to be cleared.
• They are both scheduled to visit the IEBC offices for clearance on Monday June 6.
Image: JOSIAH ODANGA
Two governor aspirants in Siaya were on Saturday cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to contest in the August 9 polls.
They were Millicent Oduor of deputy president William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and Nicholas Gumbo of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) Party.
Their challengers, James Orengo of the ODM party and Independent candidate William Otieno Ochieng are yet to be cleared.
They are both scheduled to visit the IEBC offices for clearance on Monday June 6.
Former police spokesman Charles Owino withdrew from the contest.
Oduor, a counselling psychologist by profession, is the only woman in the Siaya gubernatorial race.
“My candidature should not be seen with the lenses of the party that I am in. It is about me, Millicent Adhiambo Oduor.”
She added: “There was no space in Azimio (One Kenya Coalition Party) that is why we have many independent candidates in this region. UDA gave me a chance.”
In 2017, Oduor was running mate of Dan Akello, who vied for the Siaya governor seat on a Jubilee ticket.
If elected Siaya governor, she promised to empower youth and women, create jobs and drill boreholes to provide clean and safe water in people’s homesteads.
She also said she has a plan for people who have been impacted by HIV in the county.
“I will build mental health institutions for psychotherapy for people who have been impacted with HIV because they endure of a lot of trauma,” she said.
Oduor said she trusts her professional experience of dealing with people to enable her serve the society using the bottom-up economic model if elected governor.
Siaya is the home county of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential aspirant Raila Odinga.
Gumbo asked his competitors to sell their manifesto instead of 'chasing after vanity' known as six-piece-suit voting pattern.
“Six-piece is a selfish idea that is being propagated by people who have either no record or agenda for the people,” Gumbo said.
The six-piece voting pattern is being propagated by contestants and supporters of the ODM in the area.
Gumbo said that ODM killed the idea of six-piece because Raila himself, is not running on an ODM ticket.
Gumbo said that the outgoing governor Cornel Rasanga has done his best in laying a foundation for devolution in the county.
He said he will pick off from where Rasanga will have left and fix what remains.
He urged for peaceful campaigns and competition based on ideas.
“We want to make Raila proud of devolution that he so hard fought for. A Goliath is going down on August 9,” Gumbo’s running mate David Ohito said.
Ohito confirmed that members of the UDM have been consulted and incorporated in the Azimio presidential election campaigns in the region.
Raila is scheduled to tour the county on June 18 to solidify support for his presidential bid.
Women Rep candidate Emma Akinyi Ogola of the Maendeleo Democratic Party and Independent senatorial aspirant Julius Okinda are also aligned to the Gumbo-Ohito faction.