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Bomet Governor Joyce Cherono Laboso is the third governor to die in office.
Dr Laboso also becomes the second county boss to die from cancer after Nyeri’s pioneer governor Nderitu Gachagua.
Gachagua died in February 2017 and his deputy Samuel Wamathai served the remaining six months left in the term.
Mr Wamathai was later defeated in the August 2017 General Election by Wahome Gakuru, who became Nyeri’s third governor.
Dr Gakuru, however, died in a road accident just three months after assuming office, paving the way for his deputy, Mutahi Kahiga, to take over.
Laboso’s 11-year political career ended yesterday as cancer claimed yet another victim from the political class.
The governor, who was aged 58, was first thrown into the political arena in September 2008 after her elder sister and Sotik MP Lorna Laboso died in an airplane crash that also killed Roads minister Kipkalya Kones.
She was nominated by the ODM party to vie for the Sotik seat, which she won in a by-election. Laboso comfortably defended the seat in 2013 under the defunct URP.
In 2017, she switched gears to run for the gubernatorial seat. She beat former governor Isaac Ruto to become one of only three women elected as county chiefs.
The others are Charity Ngilu (Kitui) and Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga).
Assume office
Following her death, Deputy Governor Hillary Barchok, who has been running the show in her absence, will be sworn in as the county boss.
The law provides that if a vacancy occurs in the office of the governor, the deputy governor shall assume office for the remainder of the term.
The swearing-in should be immediate, meaning it could take place today. The new governor will later nominate a deputy for vetting and approval by the county assembly.
Gachagua died on February 24, 2017, at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London while undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. Kibra MP Ken Okoth, who died from colon cancer last Friday, was not the first MP to die of cancer in the 12th Parliament, as three others have since the August 2017 elections.
They are Francis Nyenze (Kitui West), Kanu-era Cabinet Minister Grace Kipchoim (Baringo South) and Migori Senator Ben Oluoch.
Oluoch, a former Ramogi and KBC radio presenter, died at MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi in June last year after long battle with throat cancer.
Nyenze, on the other hand, died of colon cancer, a disease he had resiliently fought for close to a decade, in December 2017. He was 60.
Kipchoim died in April last year while undergoing treatment in a Nairobi hospital. She was sickly throughout the campaign period and did not conduct a single rally as she was bed-ridden.
