Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa has announced that she will vie to become Kilifi Governor in the 2022 General Election.
During a phone interview with The Star, the MP stated that she had been harbouring ambitions for the top seat since 2015.
“The ambition is there, I will vie in Kilifi county come 2022 to work for my people,” she told the local daily.
“I was the first woman to be elected under the new constitution as the Woman MP of Kilifi, then I shifted the goalpost to a single constituency and won as well. I feel I have something big to offer, thus my resolve,” she added.
Jumwa, who is considered as the iron lady of coast politics, will have to contend with other heavyweights who have declared an interest in the same seat.
The current governor's brother Michael Kingi, who is currently serving his first time in Parliament, is considered as the man to beat.
Others who have openly spoken about taking a stab at the county's top seat are Chief Administrative Secretary for Lands Gideon Mung’aro, who lost to Kingi in 2017, Kenya's High Commissioner to Tanzania Dan Kazungu, Kilifi North MP Owen Baya, Kilifi CEC for Education Professor Gabriel Katana and Kilifi South MP Ken Chonga.
Governor Kingi, who is on his last term, has remained non-committal about who he will support.
The upper hand that Jumwa has over her competitors is that she is a newsmaker and is constantly making headlines in mainstream media.
She recently came under attack for changing the lyrics of a Christian song in an attempt to praise Deputy President William Ruto.
