West Pokot County Deputy Governor, Dr. Nicholas Atudonyang, who has been working in the United States of America for four years, is now seeking the Gubernatorial seat in the upcoming General Election.
Aside from executing the functions of a deputy governor, he is a neurosurgeon practicing in America.
The medic will square it out with his boss, a professor of applied mathematics, John Lonyangapuo, in the August polls. The two scholars will be seeking the electorates' favour on the Azimio la Umoja ticket.
Atudonyang is with Kenya's independence party KANU while his boss cum competitor Prof Lonyangapuo is riding on the Kenya United Party (KUP), which he recently launched.
"The people continue to support me, the people continue to feel and appreciate what I am doing for them, and they know that I continue to carry their aspirations with them,” Atudonyang told the media.
Despite missing in action for the past four years, the DG took a swipe at his boss, faulting him for not uniting the residents during his tenure as the county's chief executive officer.
"The governor saw it fit to isolate the people of West Pokot from the rest of Kenya by forming a small tribal party, but the people of West Pokot seem to be smarter than the governor himself,” he noted.
Lonyangapuo, who had initially defended his Deputy, accused him for his deserting the people of West Pokot when they needed him most.
The governor had initially defended Atudonyang's absence, stating that the county received containers of medical suppliers from the US courtesy of his Deputy.
"The problem at Kapenguria Hospital is not lack of doctors but medical equipment because of high prices. We have no machines for cancer screening.
“We need Ksh.3 billion for the equipment and the county gets Ksh 5.5billion from the national government will not get money to buy all those equipment,” the governor stated in 2018.
As the August polls draw closer, a number of deputy governors have declared their interest in taking over the running of county affairs, including Kakamega DG Prof Philip Kutima who wants to succeed Wycliffe Oparanya who is serving his second and final term.
