INDEPENDENT Migori Governor aspirant Ochilo Ayacko today made a grand entry in Migori County with thousands of supporters turning up to receive him following his decision to run as an independent candidate against Migori Governor Okoth Obado who got a direct ticket from ODM following the nullification of the Migori gubernatorial election by the ODM National Appeals Tribunal.
Ochilo is banking on what he terms Obado’s poor score-card, corruption and failure to create opportunities to Migori’s increasingly educated and young population despite receiving billions of shillings in the last five years.
Migori County is among counties that were exposed by the Auditor General Edward Ouko for unaccounted millions, pointing to massive plunder and looting.
This, coupled with the perception that the Migori governor used money to buy the ODM ticket by bribing ODM election officials following the bungling of ODM nominations in Migori County has seen Ochilo’s popularity rise in the county.
A former Rongo MP and minister in the NARC regime, Ochilo is making a comeback in politics a decade after losing the Rongo parliamentary seat to Dalmas Otieno, who also lost in the just concluded ODM primaries to a new entrant.
The fallout during Migori nominations has seen Obado start at weak point, with allegations that ODM Party is forcing him down Migori people.
Obado is also facing the challenge of having to convince ODM leaders in Migori County to back his re-election bid despite being at loggerheads with the same leaders for the last five years. This state of affairs has seen ODM senior politicians from the county like Suna East MP and ODM Director of Campaigns Junet Mohammed keep off campaigning for the ODM ticket for the governor.
So bad is the relationship between the two leaders that Obado is said to be sponsoring a local businessman to run against Junet in Suna East Constituency which is part of at least six constituencies strongly tilting towards Ochilo Ayacko.
Ochilo has indicated he is supporting NASA’s presidential candidate Raila Odinga hence putting to doubt where his loyalties are.
Hundreds of supporters turned up along the Homa Bay Migori route to receive Ochilo, whose reception has dwarfed the last week home coming of Obado. However, Obado, also hugely popular, particularly in Kuria regions, is expected to pull a resource backed campaign and benefit from the support of ODM Party Leader Raila Odinga.
