Mumias East MP Peter Salasya has declared his bid to unseat Kakamega governor Fernandes Barasa in the 2027 elections.
The first-timer in the National Assembly put up the political stab on Sunday, January 21, through a Facebook update.
"It's now official I will be vying for governor," he said.
Salasya who has lately been courting controversy with his conduct while in the public is on record as threatening to teach Barasa a political lesson on the ballot.
This was after he declined to make peace with the county boss even with the intervention of Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga who had strived to broker a truce between them.
Read More
.jpg)
"There shall be no more handshake between me and this childish governor, and because of this, I will vie for Governor 2027 whether he likes it or not. Whether or not I win is not important," he said on December 2, 2023, after clashing with the governor's troops at a funeral in Matungu, Kakamega county.
The bitter duo has not been reading from the same script, the politics around the revival of the Mumias Sugar Company being the bone of contention.
Salasya has been accusing the governor of sabotaging the efforts to revive the miller that had gone almost moribund for years after collapsing under the weight of debts.
The lawmaker's early entry into the Kakamega governorship ring tends to complicate the arithmetic for Barasa who is likely to seek re-election given he is a first-timer in the Council of Governors (CoG).
This came a week after Senator Boni Khalwale also declared his interest in the same post come 2027.
Khalwale met with the county's first governor Wycliffe Oparanya from whom he sought blessings before embarking on the political journey.
"Today was the day to inform the County Government that I will be running for Governor in 2027. I deliberately chose former Governor Wycliffe Oparanya for this very important communication to this county because he was our first Governor," Khalwale told the press after his meeting with Oparanya.
