Lugari MP Ayub Savula will fly the Democratic Action Party of Kenya ticket in the Kakamega governor race in August.
Savula was handed the ticket after Deputy Governor Philip Kutima dropped out of the race.
Savula was handed the ticket by party National Elections Board chairman Ronald Jumbe in Kakamega on Monday.
Party officials have been meeting Savula and Kutima to hammer out a consensus on who should fly the party ticket in the governor race.
Initially, the two aspirants failed to agree and the party had to organise nominations to pick a candidate between the two on April 20.
But an hour to a consultative meeting to brief them on the nominations, Kutima tendered his letter to withdraw from the race.
Savula, the party deputy leader, now joins ANC’s Senator Cleophas Malala, Fernandes Barasa of ODM, Samuel Omukoko of Maendeleo Democratic Party and Cyrus Jirongo of UDP in the August race.
Barasa, Savula and Jirongo are under the Azimio umbrella, while Malala is in Kenya Kwanza Alliance.
Kutima, who had earlier been touted as the likely DAP-K candidate, declined to address the media. He, however, promised to later issue a personal statement on his reasons for pulling out of the race.
He had hoped to replace his boss, Wycliffe Oparanya, on the ODM ticket but defected to DAP-K after the Orange party issued a direct ticket to Barasa, the former Ketraco MD.
DAP-K patron Eugene Wamalwa (Defence CS) urged Kutima to continue supporting Azimio to ensure the coalition’s presidential nominee Raila Odinga wins the race.
Wamalwa said the party will field candidates in 23 counties and has so far cleared more than 1, 400 aspirants for various seats.
“For a young party that was launched in December, it is not a mean feat,” Eugene said.
He said DAP-K will emerge as the dominant party in Western since the majority of governors, senators and MPs in the region are in the party.
Edited by A.N
