ODM leader Raila Odinga has said there was a scheme to assassinate Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho over his stance on the Jubilee government.
Joho has been a bitter critic of President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP William Ruto, accusing them of corruption and riding on donor-funded projects.
Most recently, Joho’s security detail was withdrawn after he lectured Uhuru about launching projects funded by other entities.
But Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet denied that political factors motivated the withdrawal.
“We have information that they want to do to Joho what they did to the late Jacob Juma. But let us warn them that Kenya will burn if anything happens to Joho,” Raila said on Tuesday.
The opposition leader also said they had credible information that Jubilee was planning to rig the August 8 poll.
Raila said the opposition will employ the adopt-a-polling-station system, in which they will second about 58 people to guard their votes at each centre.
He said the system was well employed in the Ghana polls so they will do the same in the country’s 24,000 polling stations.
Raila noted that the Coast region is critical in determining the outcome of the general election.
“The tyranny of numbers at the Coastal region will propel the Opposition into power,” he said.
He added that the region’s millions of people will deliver a special number of votes to send Jubilee leaders home.
The Cord chief claimed that in the last election, there was skewed distribution of BVR kits in Opposition strongholds such as Coast, Nyanza and Western.
“The BVR kits distribution was only focused on Jubilee strongholds. Our people were left out of the registration exercise, but this time round we shall prove to them that we also have the tyranny of numbers,” he said.
But he said Jubilee received the fewest number of votes from Coast compared to other Cord zones.
This is why the region is important, he said at Mtwapa grounds, Kilifi county, on Tuesday, when he began his two-day tour of the Coast.
Raila was accompanied by Joho, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi and MPs Omar Mwinyi (Changamwe), Rashid Bedzimba (Kisauni), Willy Mtengo (Malindi) and William Kamoti (Rabai.)
Others were woman representatives Mishi Mboko (Mombasa) and Aisha Jumwa (Kilifi) and Senator Stewart Madzayo.
At the weekend Mboko asked Coast residents to register in large numbers as voters to give the region political bargaining power.
She said this time round they want to register millions of voters in order to become a political super power like Rift Valley, Central, Western and Nyanza.
Mboko said the Coast has always been left behind in the development agenda because its leaders lack tyranny of numbers.
“For a very long time Coast has been looked down upon because we do not have enough numbers to demand recognition. No one can approach us to bargain for political power because we have very few votes coming from this region,” she said.
Mboko further said leaders in the region will do everything possible to ensure voters register in large numbers.
She added that voters in Coast do not need to work with the ruling Jubilee Party to benefit.
“It is our time now. If we register in good numbers they will come begging for our support. If we fail to persuade our people to register, we will always be neglected and looked down upon,” she said.
During the 2013 general elections, Coast voted overwhelmingly for Raila Odinga’s Cord coalition.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party has been wooing the region to work closely with the government in order to benefit from developments.
Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya and Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro are among area leaders who have defected to the ruling party.
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