Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya on Saturday led Luhya delegates and other ODM brigades in endorsing the Orange party candidate, Bernard Okoth Imran, for the Kibra by-election.
According to a statement made by the ODM Party in its social media accounts, Oparanya led his Luhya community members in declaring Imran fit for the seat.
“The Luhya Community in Kibra today endorsed the candidature of Bernard Otieno Okoth (Imran).
Deputy Party Leader @GovWOparanya led top officials and legislators from the community in a series of meetings with the Abaluhya people who said they are solidly in ODM and behind Imran,” tweeted the ODM party.
The orange deputy party leader was in the company of the ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna, Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi, Makadara MP George Aladwa among other ODM leaders.
The leaders held various town hall meetings in a bid to lure the Luhya community to vote in the ODM candidate.
The meetings come a day before Raila Odinga’s mega rally in Laini Saba where he is expected to woo his supporters to vote in Imran.
The visit by the leaders, in all appearances, aimed at quelling a reported rebellion against the Orange party by members of the Luhya community.
The by-election seems to be taking an ethnic angle after the Deputy President William Ruto at a burial of former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale’s wife urged the Luhya leaders to support their own in the Kibra elections.
The ODM candidate is a brother to the late Kibra MP, Ken Okoth, who succumbed to colorectal cancer.
Imran is facing stiff competition from Jubilee’s candidate McDonald Mariga and ANC’s Eliud Owalo among other candidates cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.