Oparanya and Mvurya clash over COG chairmanship

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Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya . PHOTO: file

Nairobi, KENYA: A potential clash is brewing between the Newly elected COG Chair who is the Kakamega governor Wyclif Oparanya and the Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya.

It all started when Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya who seemed not to have welcomed well the election of Kakamega Governor Wcyliff Oparanya as the new Council of Governors CoG chairman took issues with the Council of Governors for failing to consider him for the chairman post.

Last year President Uhuru Kenyatta met governors elected on Jubilee Party ticket and its affiliates where they agreed to elect Kwale governor  Mvurya as chairman of the council of governors since Jubilee controls a majority of the counties, whereby  Turkana governor Josephat Nanok was given the seat as an interim chair for six months before Mvurya takes over

 Speaking on Tuesday while addressing media in Kwale county, Mvurya questioned the intergrity of the council for conducting an election which according to him was not supposed to be held.
Mvurya had snubbed the council elections that were held on Monday.
“I can’t say that I was thrown out, there was a position and it was vacated which made me unhappy and that puts to question the integrity of the council when it makes a decision and vacates it again then it means a lot for democracy,” he added.
Last year the Council of Governors resolved to have Governor Mvurya take over from the outspoken Turkana Governor and former CoG chairman Josphat Nanok as his term came to an end.
However Mvurya has since affirmed that he was betrayed by the council as he was expected to succeed Governor Nanok.

However, Oparanya who was addressing members of the fourth estate in Nairobi on Wednesday said that Mvurya has no right of complaining failure by the council hand over a  direct ticket him to clinch the seat.

According to Oparanya, the elections were to be held last year on 14th December 2018, but postponed to 14 January 2019, since the governors were busily involved in the arrangement of president Kenyatta visits in the western region.

The chair argued that only interested governors applied for the position by filling application forms which Governor Mvuryia never applied for according to COG elections laws.

” I never saw his form or name. There is no election where you can be promised a seat and in any case, if he was promised, it was to be after six months and it’s now one year, why couldn’t he have complained after those six months were over? Said Oparanya.

Oparanya this week on Monday contested against six contestants that include: Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru, Anyang’I Nyong’o of Kisumu, Jackson Mandago of Uasin Gishu county, Turkana governor Josphat Nanok and Kwale county governor Salim Mvuryia.

Governor Mvurya, who defected from the opposition and won re-election on a Jubilee ticket, has previously served as deputy chairman of the CoG for two terms.

Additional reporting Brivian Simiyu

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