{"id":118161,"date":"2025-07-16T03:08:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/07\/16\/senator-onyonka-dodges-petty-clash-with-arati-as-he-declares-gubernatorial-ambitions\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T03:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:08:02","slug":"senator-onyonka-dodges-petty-clash-with-arati-as-he-declares-gubernatorial-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/senator-onyonka-dodges-petty-clash-with-arati-as-he-declares-gubernatorial-ambitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Onyonka dodges \u2018petty\u2019 clash with Arati as he declares gubernatorial ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>KISII, Kenya, Jul 15 \u2013 Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has declared his intention to run for the Kisii gubernatorial seat in 2027, aiming to unseat Governor Simba Arati.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking on a local radio station on Tuesday, Onyonka stated that he is fully prepared to challenge Governor Arati.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am behaving responsibly, without being petty. When the time comes, I will run for governor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Onyonka further noted that he is carrying out his oversight role over the Kisii County government without fear or favour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am oversighting the county government of Kisii without fear or favour. I\u2019m not out to slander Governor Arati\u2014I will only speak about his performance, as well as that of our Woman Representative and MCAs,\u201d said the Senator.<\/p>\n<p>The political rift between Governor Arati and Senator Onyonka began a few months after the 2022 elections, following Arati\u2019s dismissal of ghost workers from the county payroll. Onyonka claimed the purge unfairly targeted members of his clan.<\/p>\n<p>The Senator demanded accountability on service delivery and urged Governor Arati to provide a detailed breakdown of the 2022\/2023 county budget expenditure\u2014a move that deepened their political rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>Onyonka dismissed claims by Governor Arati that he rode on Arati\u2019s popularity to win his Senate seat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we ran out of campaign funds in 2022, former Interior CS Fred Matiang\u2019i came in to support us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not ride on Arati to [get] elected. I campaigned like any other leader and earned this seat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Matiang\u2019i now re-emerging in political circles, both leaders appear to be seeking his support. <\/p>\n<p>While Governor Arati has kept a low profile, Onyonka frequents opposition meeting attended by Matiang\u2019i across the country.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KISII, Kenya, Jul 15 \u2013 Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has declared his intention to run for the Kisii gubernatorial seat in 2027, aiming to unseat Governor Simba Arati. Speaking on a local radio station on Tuesday, Onyonka stated that he is fully prepared to challenge Governor Arati. \u201cI am behaving responsibly, without being petty. When [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}