Wamuzi News Ke
The political divide in Homa Bay has been transformed into open hostility as Deputy Governor Oyugi Magwanga condemned Governor Gladys Wanga in public and declared his opposition to her re-election, thus making an extraordinary move that could alter the power game in the county before the 2027 elections.
This shocking action, which is very rare among running mates, indicates the presence of major strategic and personal fractures in the county’s top leadership.
In very harsh terms, Magwanga referred to Wanga as a “one-term governor” and promised to join forces with her opponents and actively obstruct her from going for another term. He not only labeled her administration as a county government that totally lacked crucial elements or basic requirements like contract signing and delivery through active operation but also drew much attention to himself as the critic who made such a damning indictment of the powers that be.
His comments literally reverberated throughout Homa Bay political circles, plunging the territory into what experts predict to be the most unstable and hard-to-manage crisis in county leadership in years.
The gap between the two has been apparent for a number of months. In December 2025, Wanga removed Magwanga from his position as County Executive Committee Member in charge of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock—thereby laying the groundwork for the fast and strategic manipulation—in the eyes of many whose view is that the purpose of all this is simply to draw the deputy back after he challenged the party’s position in the course of the Kasipul parliamentary by-election by getting him out of the way completely.
Magwanga has been involved in a conflict that is getting bigger and bigger, and he is making public accusations against Wanga of neglecting him and even having his office locked up as a very theatrical manifestation of the bad relations within the county government.
The conflict has affected not only the top executives but also the community leaders who have gotten involved, advising that the leadership struggle can lead to the uncontrollable situation of the county’s governance and even the breaking of the alliances that have existed for a long time in the area.
The legal issues are already deepening the political drama. A high-ranking county officer, who was dismissed in the midst of the leadership tussle, has filed a complaint against the governor, claiming he was illegally terminated and this was part of the factional battles that happened right after the Kasipul vote.
Political experts now warn that this turmoil could spread to party politics on a larger scale in the area, especially in the case of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The party has already been suffering from its inability to manage internal dissent and, at the same time, to hold the party together in the run-up to national elections.
