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The scramble for Mijikenda community vote distributed across the six sub-counties of Mombasa is slowly taking shape ahead of next year’s General Election.

Already businessman Suleiman Shahbal who is seeking Mombasa governorship for the third time has started endearing him- self to the Mijikenda with the latest being a meeting with their elders.

The elders from Kaya Shonda, Kaya Mtongwe, Kaya Mihongani, and Kaya Bofu declared their support for Shahbal ‘s quest for Mombasa’s top seat after endorsing him as one of them at Consolata Cottages in Timbwani, Likoni.

Irresistible voteWhile rivals have dismissed Shahbal’s gesture as mere act of falling prey to “po- litical conmanship” by the elders, observers say the Mijikenda vote in Mombasa has always been irresistible in any gubernato- rial contest involving non-Mijikenda as candidates.

Mombasa has a total of 580,223 regis- tered voters as per 2017 official Indepen- dent Electoral and Boundaries Commis- sion (IEBC) register with nearly 50 per cent of these voters said to be from the Mijikenda community concentrated especially in Kisauni and Likoni sub counties and parts of Mvita.

It is against the above backdrop observers argue that the Mijikenda factor will remain crucial for anyone seeking to be the next governor and just like in previous races; Kenyan-Arab aspirants will have no choice but to scramble for Mijikenda running mates.

“Mijikenda are like the owners of Coast with Kwale in the South having two sub clans of Mijikenda that is Duruma and Digo and Kilifi in the north having the rest of the seven Mijikenda sub clans.

You will find a lot of influence from the community either working or residing in Mombasa City. This is why the Mijikenda are the majority of the Coastal communities in Mombasa,” Pwani University Professor Halimu Shauri said: “Any person who wants to become the next Mombasa governor will have to appeal to the Mijikenda vote.”

In the past successive contests, aspirants for the port county’s top seat have been wooing the majority Mijikenda voters by picking one of their own as running mates.

Shahbal and his rival Mvita MP Abduls- wamad Sharrif Nassir who are eyeing the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket are considered descendants of the Arab Swahili, a community regarded as wealthy but whose influence hardly goes beyond the urban reach.