Migori Governor Okoth Obado, on Wednesday, found himself in trouble when he was forced to cut his speech short after residents threatened to stone him.
Obado was speaking at a function at Kegonga in Kuria East over a World Bank project meant to upgrade municipalities where he opened a maternity ward and launched the sub-county offices.
According to reports, the county head's remarks defending his administration's choice of Rongo, Migori and Awendo towns as the beneficiaries of the Ksh516 Million project did not augur well with Kegonga locals who accused him of sidelining them.
Among those present was Kuria East MP Marwa Kitayama whom the governor accusing of using the project to taint his (Obado) name.
“I have tried to explain to my brother (Mr Kitayama) the truth about the World Bank project but he has refused to listen. He wants to incite the Kuria people against me so that they can think Obado is such a bad person. He is the only one who knows his aim of besmirching my name.
"He is here and I do not want to speak behind his back. So my brother, on a sober note, let me tell you whoever you are working for, you will not succeed,” Obado lashed out.
Kitayama rushed to the podium in a bid to stop the governor from speaking as residents shouted down Obado.
Some picked up stones, knobkerries and clubs ready for what was to come next. It is at this point that Obado's bodyguards surrounded him to protect him from any weapon the crowd would have thrown at the podium.
Obado was forced to cut his speech short as the residents chanted, "We want a municipal."
On his part, the Kuria East MP accused the governor of denying Kuria a municipality.
“If governor Josephat Nanok of Turkana gave Kakuma refugee camp a municipality, what of Kuria which had a municipality at Kehancha since time immemorial? Then when we demand to know we are accused of playing politics.
“We support Migori, Awendo and Rongo towns getting the project. It does not matter how they got the municipalities but we support them. But we demand Kehancha be a municipal and it should benefit from the project,” Kitayama maintained.
