The second last weekend to the general elections, has seen several changes and departures from various political affiliations. The Azimio camp had the biggest loss after Mr. Mike Mbuvi Sonko defected to the UDA of William Samoei Ruto. The departure left a huge gap in Azimio cluster as Sonko was a big contender in to popularize the Azimio in Ukambani. With the departure, the Azimio cluster has to restructure their plans with the remaining influencers to gain from the region. The region houses over 1.5 million voters and has seen fierce campaign battles between the two rival groups.
This has left Mr. Kivutha Kibwana, Charity Ngilu and Kalonzo Musyoka to popularize their manifesto in the remaining days. Earlier this year, the Machakos Governor Mr. Alfred Mutua also had defected to the UDA side after a misunderstanding with the pillars of the Azimio structure. This departure saw the Azimio side slowly loosing the commanding ground with only three prominent people left in the camp
Sonko faces many legal and integrity challenges with the court and has evacuated to the political rivals after his bid to run for a gubernatorial position in Mombasa county was abolished by the supreme court following fraud charges. However his major argument has been! in the other parties, corrupt individuals are allowed to run for elective positions while he has been denied. This prompted him to challenge the supreme court ruling in the east African court of justice. A case which is yet to be processed.
After his defection to UDA, Sonko has threatened to support the UDA candidate in the Mombasa gubernatorial race if some conditions are not met.
His departure form the Azimio camp has earned the Azimio side a name “the clean ones”, while to the defected side it has earned them “rogue individuals”
