Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho is under fire from three gubernatorial aspirants who have accused him of denying them space to erect their campaign billboards in the county.
The three, Senator Hassan Omar of the Wiper Democratic Movement, Suleiman Shahbal of Jubilee Party and Hezron Awiti of the Vibrant Democratic Party (VDP) stated that Governor Joho was frustrating their campaign efforts.
Speaking separately, the three candidates claimed it was unfair for Joho to put up his billboards while thwarting every effort of his competitors to promote theirs.
Senator Omar claimed that his efforts to acquire space to erect his advertisement have been rejected.
“The three gubernatorial candidates have been denied a chance by the county government to place billboards. I am going to give details later,” said Omar
Flanked by the JP women rep aspirant Amina Abdallah, Shabhal protested and condemned what he termed as suppression by the county over the erecting of billboards and posters by candidates.
“The county has given instructions that they will not allow those challenging Governor Joho to have their billboards erected within the city,” said Shabhal.
On his part, Awiti claimed that he had sent a Sh360,000 cheque through a proxy to put up his first billboard, but the county returned it after releasing it came from him.
“A cheque was returned yesterday and this is very sad. The county government is trying to frustrate all candidates competing with the governor by denying them an opportunity to advertise and promote their campaign agendas through the billboards,” protested Awiti
County Communications Director Richard Chacha, however, denied the claims from the three and warned them against dragging the name of the county government into their problems.
Chacha explained that the politicians should seek permission from private companies, which he said were allocated the advertising sites.
Mr Chacha further stated that the county only gets levies from the private advertising firms, but do not determine who places advertisements.
“Placement of billboards is a private business. Even the county government pays such firms when putting up its adverts. The firms go for the highest bidders because theirs is a willing-buyer-willing-seller arrangement,” said Chacha.
He added that the county only gets levies from the private advertising firms, but do not determine who places advertisements.
