Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has given his deputy Philip Kutima the supervisory role of his administration.
This comes four days after he dropped him as the county CEC in charge of Agriculture in a reshuffle of his cabinet last Thursday.
The moves triggered heated speculation on social media that Oparanya who is the Council of Governors' chair could have dropped his deputy as his heir apparent.
But on Monday, Oparanya said in a statement that there was no rift between him and his deputy terming the speculations as misplaced.
"Following my added responsibilities at the national level, the deputy should shoulder greater supervisory responsibility than ever before which can better be effected when he unloads some of the responsibilities like being a CEC of a department," Oparanya said in a statement read by his chief of staff Robert Sumbi.
Oparanya said Kutima and he had built a solid track record of working closely together in harmony and supporting each other with a view to actualising their political campaign manifesto and the county development agenda as laid out in the CIDP, ADP and other core development plans and strategies.
The move is seen as a major boost to Kutima's aspirations to succeed his boss who is serving his second and final term.
Kutima will square it out with Lugari MP Ayub Savula, former Senator Boni Khalwale, Samuel Omukoko, county assembly clerk Laban Atemba and senator Cleophas Malala.
Two months ago, Oparanya said some of the county staff had taken advantage of his absence due to engagement in national matters to engage in corruption.
Oparanya also defended his administration against accusations that it has failed to appoint youth and people with disabilities into his government.
He said the accusations of his failure to appoint youth and PLWD were misplaced as the changes last week were mere reshuffle and not fresh appointments.
"The reshuffle presented an opportunity to reorganise the government for better service delivery. Some of our leaders who rushed to the media to lash out at me for not appointing youths and PLWDs are therefore out of order," he said.
He said that the county executive was more than just cabinet as it includes chief officers and advisors where the youths and PLWDs were well represented.
Edited by R.Wamochie
