ODM party leader Raila Odinga has disputed claims that the party is losing it's strong ground is Coast.
"We won in Kilifi, and also last year. It is very wrong for someone to say that ODM is losing ground in the coast," Raila said during a Wednesday night Interview on KTN.
Independent candidate, Feisal Badder pulled a surprising win with 15,251 votes against ODM's Omar Boga’s 10,444 of the 27,313 votes cast in the Msambweni MP by-election
Boga lost with a margin of 4,807 votes in the results declared by the polls agency IEBC on Tuesday night.
Raila claimed that many ODM members voted for Feisal because he was the PA to the late Suleiman Dori.
Feisal 's victory as well as Gaturi, Lake View, and Dabaso wards have been touted as a strong political statement to the handshake duo.
Deputy President William Ruto backed Feisal, hence can be surmised that he had beaten the Raila and Uhuru side.
Eliud Owalo, a former Raila aide now Ruto ally, says the election outcome has a bearing on the 2022 general elections.
“Taking the Msambweni outcome as a baseline value, the envisaged results of Kenya's 2022 elections can clearly be projected in totality,” Owalo said.
Raila recently said the Msambweni vote would be a litmus test for the popularity of the Building Bridges Initiative – his campaign with President Kenyatta to amend the constitution.
“This election is not just about Kwale or Msambweni, but will show where we are heading to. We are promoting the BBI at the moment. The sieve is here. It will define if BBI will win or not. If ODM is beaten here, BBI will have a problem,” the ODM leader said.