HOMA BAY, Kenya — Tensions within the Homa Bay County leadership have intensified after Governor Gladys Wanga openly challenged her deputy, Oyugi Magwanga, and other dissenting officials to resign if they can no longer align with her administration.
Addressing a charged rally in Homa Bay, Wanga accused senior county officers of undermining the very government they serve, insisting that loyalty, discipline and adherence to regulations were mandatory for all officeholders.
“Someone cannot be working in your administration and speaking ill of the same administration because getting to be the leader of a government is very difficult,” Wanga told the crowd.
She recounted the long, costly, and politically demanding journey she undertook to win the governorship. “I traversed the county and even used my own resources to become the governor. If I employ you to work in this government, then they must work per the regulations.”
In her strongest statement yet, Wanga said she would no longer tolerate internal sabotage, insisting that any officer uncomfortable with her leadership should step aside immediately.
“And when the day comes that they feel tired and no longer able to work with this county government, they should feel free to resign and pave the way for others,” she said. “Henceforth, I want to be tough; anyone who does not want to work in my government will be forced to resign, and I will allocate those positions to others.”
The governor’s remarks follow weeks of escalating tension with her deputy, Oyugi Magwanga, whose political stance in the recent Kasipul parliamentary by-election deepened the rift. Magwanga openly defied Wanga by campaigning for Independent candidate Philip Aroko, while the governor led ODM’s machinery in support of party candidate Boyd Were.
Prior to the vote, Magwanga accused ODM of conducting an unfair nomination process that produced Were as the flagbearer, a claim that stirred disquiet within the county’s ODM grassroots.
His defiance was widely interpreted as a public show of no-confidence in Wanga’s leadership and a sign of widening fault lines within the county executive.
Political analysts note that the confrontation could complicate service delivery and governance in Homa Bay unless mediated early. ODM’s leadership has not publicly commented on the feud, but local leaders have privately expressed concerns over its impact on party cohesion.
Wanga, serving her first term, has often projected herself as a firm administrator focused on discipline and structured governance. Her latest remarks suggest she intends to assert greater control over her political base as the county moves deeper into the term.
With the deputy governor now openly challenging her authority, the standoff sets the stage for a potentially destabilising political showdown unless the ODM top brass intervenes to restore unity within the county’s executive arm.
