BOMET, Kenya Aug 8 – The Jubilee Party’s Bomet gubernatorial candidate Joyce Laboso has exuded confidence that she will emerge victorious in Tuesday’s election.
Speaking to Capital FM News, Laboso who is also the current Sotik MP and National Assembly Deputy Speaker was confident she will floor her competitor, incumbent Governor Isaac Ruto.
She said that she has been able to reach out to the people of Bomet and articulate how she will address most of the issues that affect them.
“There are a lot of people who are crying that the institutions like the County Service Board are not working here in Bomet, that it does not have the teeth, so first of all we will have to put structures in place.”
“Secondly there is a serious crisis about water provision and third one is in the area of education; where most of the projects which were started were not completed. So with all the slabs within the county, maybe one of the first things we will have to look at how we can make those to be actual classrooms for early childhood education to take place properly in this county among other things such as hiring medical personnel in the hospitals and ensuring there is enough medicine in the hospitals,” Laboso stated.
She downplayed allegations that she was ‘a project’ of Deputy President William Ruto with whom they had a fallout.
“I have studiously been seeking votes from the people of Bomet for almost the last three years. So if I was a project I would have sat somewhere in Nairobi and waited for the project to be installed as the Governor of Bomet.”
“I even have a plan that you saw the president and deputy coming to launch it, that would not have been necessary if I was a project. So what is a project really? Ask the current Governor, what plans he has for the people of Bomet and what did he do with the seat he was given in 2013, that is really where he was concentrating,” Laboso told Capital FM News in Bomet.
In a light hearted moment with our team, the Deputy Speaker admitted she is looking forward to being the county chief.
“Assenting to Bills, yes that is a good one, at least I will feel a bit like President Uhuru Kenyatta but a small version,” she said jokingly.
Asked if her lack of experience in management of county affairs is a disadvantage, the Deputy Speaker laughed off the remark, stating that no “one, not even the current Governor had an executive background.”
She added that she will not be a lone-ranger operator but will be the head of a team focused on improving service delivery to the county residents.
“The issue of question of biting bigger than what I can chew I don’t think that is true. I am a second term MP in this constituency and I don’t see what is so different. It is not like I will be running it single handedly. I have a whole host of people, who will be running that seat.”
“For politicians, they come from all manner of fields; from teachers, to lawyers to business people so it is a question of how well you can organise, how well you can delegate and use peoples’ expertise,” she explained.
The Deputy Speaker cracked up when our reporter asked her what she will miss most about the National Assembly and the legislature in general.
(Laughs) Well you know I have made a lot of friends during the time I have been in the National Assembly, but I must admit that it was becoming a bit complicated and a bit difficult to find anything more that I could do at the National Assembly; the size also almost double from what we were in the 9th Parliament.”
“I always felt that I needed to move up or do something different. Every 10 years I always feel that I need to change whatever it is that I have been doing but yes, I will miss a lot of the procedures of Parliament; of course I will miss (The Speakers) Procession, the traditions that are there with Parliament, but basically it will be that legislative role to make laws that can a difference in peoples’ lives.”
-capitalfm.co.ke
