Deputy President William Ruto will on Thursday hold his last presidential campaign at the Coast, hoping that his five-year onslaught on the ODM stronghold has borne fruit.
In a last-ditch efforts to woo the over 1.9 million voters, Ruto and his team will seek to consolidate his support, a day before Azimio's presidential candidate Raila Odinga also holds his final rally in the region at the same venue.
Ruto's team has been bolstered by the defection of former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) from Wiper after his failed attempt to vie for the Mombasa governor seat. Ruto will hope that Sonko's support base will boost his numbers in Mombasa.
The UDA candidate for Mombasa governor's seat Hassan Omar said the final rally at the Coast will be a chance to bring together the party's supporters to listen to their leader for the last time before they vote.
Omar said he was ready to work with Sonko to liberate Mombasa people from "economic hardships and drug abuse".
The Coast has for the last 15 years rallied behind Raila. However, Ruto's team is betting it can win some seats and increase its total tally of votes from what Jubilee got in 2013 and 2017 polls.
The DP's presidential campaign at the Coast started days after the March 9, 2018 handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila.
His forays appeared to exploit the frustration of Coast leaders who felt betrayed by Raila's decision to work with Uhuru, days after a grueling political campaign period.
Within months, several opposition MPs in Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Tana River and Lamu counties defied their party's threats to suspend them and trooped to the DP's side.
Currently, governors Amason Kingi (Kilifi) and Salim Mvurya of Kwale, 14 MPs, and a host of former senior political leaders in the region are backing Ruto's quest to succeed President Kenyatta.
The MPs are Michael Kingi (Magarini), Aisha Jumwa (Malindi), Owen Baya (Kilifi South), Benjamin Tayari (Kinango), Kassim Tandaza (Matuga), Mohamed Ali (Nyali), Jones Mlolwa (Voi) and Khatib Mwashetani (Lunga Lunga).
Others are Feisal Bader (Msambweni), Rehema Hassan (Tana River Woman Rep), Athuman Shariff (Lamu West), Kassim Tandaza (Matuga), Anwar Loitiptip (Lamu Senator), and Lydia Haika (Taita Taveta Woman Rep).
The so-called ODM rebels like Jumwa and Baya have defended their decision to join Ruto's bandwagon, saying it is in the spirit of the handshake and "to take development to our people".
But political analysts say the DP's strategy in Coast was to weaken Raila by depicting him as a selfish leader who led the region into the opposition before he jumped into government.
His allies like Jumwa and Ali have criticised Raila during this year's campaign for remaining mum on State policies like the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that they say have impoverished the Coast people.
Meanwhile, Raila's allies like Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and Likoni MP Mishi Mboko have been fighting to keep the region in Raila's fold by branding the defectors as "sellouts paid to soil the ODM leader's name."
Whichever camp will carry the day will be known in eight days.
