- In the hotly contested race, Mutai sent shockwaves when bagged 126,038 votes against Keter's 60,342.
- The victory, he said, did not come easy since he had been campaigning for the last two years.
It is no mean feat for an inexperienced and little known university lecturer to defeat a former Cabinet Secretary in politics.
But that is what happened in the Kericho governor UDA nominations, where Eric Mutai, a former lecturer at the University of Embu, trounced former Devolution CS Charles Keter.
Kericho was one of the few regions where focus was on Deputy President William Ruto's close ally, Keter, who was expected to win by a landslide.
Buoyed by electorate demands to breathe in a new life in the leadership of the county, Mutai came in handy as one of the best aspirants to take on Keter.
In his campaigns, he was even at one point captured shedding tears atop his vehicle at Litein trading centres after his supporters fundraised for him, a clear desire for change by the people.
“I operate a mitumba and cosmetics shop there (Litein). That is where I was brought up and those are the people we grew up with. I was winding up my campaigns and saw it best to conclude there,” he said during a TV interview.
“I had all along facilitated my movements through [borrowings from] Fuliza, Branch and Tala loans, while in other cases, the help came from Good Samaritans. Their gesture moved me to tears because I realised they had great hopes in me.”
In the hotly contested race, Mutai sent shockwaves when bagged 126,038 votes against Keter's 60,342.
The victory, he said, did not come easy since he had been campaigning for the last two years.
From attending birthday celebrations to weddings and funeral ceremonies selling his agenda, Mutai attributes his triumph as the party’s flag bearer in the upcoming poll to his determination to bring change.
While he said such were small events to warrant anyone to attend, he said it helped him a lot to earn votes.
He said, despite Kericho being endowed great agricultural riches, it is sad residents are still going hungry and children rarely attend school as compared to other counties.
“I have been keen follower of devolution and many counties have made attempts to make it successful. On our part we have not taken that responsibility to ensure it works so that the common man can afford to put money into their pockets,” said.
He said there is no reason for the people to be subjected to poverty, yet it has agricultural produce as tea, coffee and potatoes.
Mutai said the county also produces milk enough to make it self-reliant.
When it comes to delivering on his promises, he said he will increase budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector from the current 5 per cent to 20 per cent of the total Sh8 billion the county receives annually from the national government.
“For us to succeed we must work on agriculture. We are going to add value to our produces by tying agro-processing industries and trade sectors through processing,” he said.
“We are not vying for these positions to look for money but to help the people.”
To ensure the tea prices are improved,he said he will ensure the new law on tea sector is fully implemented.
He said governors have “sweeping powers to determine the pay” before the tea from the county is sold out of the county.
(edited by Amol Awuor)