Jubilee Mombasa county chairman Matano Chengo has dismissed calls for secession of the Coast region by some political leaders allied to NASA.
Chengo on Friday said the secession calls are a NASA project and not that of Coast people.
Governors Hassan Joho (Mombasa) and Amason Kingi (Kilifi) on Friday said Coast people are tired of being marginalised and now want self-rule.
They were accompanied by over 12 Senators and MPs from the region at a meeting in Joho’s office.
Jubilee governors at the Coast, including Salim Mvurya (Kwale) and Fahim Twaha (Lamu), kept away from the meeting.
Governors Dhadho Godana (Tana River, ODM) and Grantin Samboja (Taita Taveta, Wiper) were not present.
Chengo said on phone: “They did not speak as Coast leaders. They spoke as ODM and NASA leaders. In the meeting, there was no other leader from other parties apart from those in NASA.”
The calls for secession were re-ignited by a section of Coast MPs led by Coast Parliamentary Group chair Suleiman Dori, who is the Msambweni MP.
Dori has been leading the Coastal MPs in pushing for self-rule.
Kilifi North MP Owen Baya has already stated he will introduce the secession motion in Parliament and Likoni’s Mishi Mboko will second it.
The secessionist group, Mombasa Republican Council has already dismissed the current calls.
Spokesman Rashid Mraja said the statements by Joho and Kingi might trigger political violence in the region.
“When we were agitating for self-rule, they were quite. We were arrested and taken to court but none of them came to our rescue. Why are they coming out to speak about it now?”
The outfit was crashed by the national government’s security apparatus while they were agitating for secession through violence.
They have since changed tack and are now following legal means to push their agenda.
Kilifi Senator Stewart Madzayo dismissed claims by the outlawed MRC group, saying their approach was different from the one initiated by the group.
The outlawed group opted to go in the bush instead of using the right channels.
Earlier, Kingi said his and Joho’s dreams of becoming presidents of Kenya will not materialize because they come from a small tribe.
“It is impossible for a Kenyan from a small ethnic group to dream of becoming a president of this republic. Therefore, there is the need for Coast to secede and be led by its people,” he said.
Chengo, however, said the two governors should not talk about the marginalization of the Coast region.
He said the two have had the opportunity to change the fortunes of the region through devolution for the last five years.
Both Joho and Kingi are serving their second terms at Mombasa and Kilifi counties respectively.
“A governor is the president of the county. Since they were elected governors, what have they done to help Coastal people apart from spreading propaganda against the national government?” posed Chengo.
He described the two governors as puppets of their political party leader.
“Our resources in Mombasa and Kilifi have been misused by these two leaders while serving a certain leader from a certain party in the interest of that party and not the people of Coast,” Chengo said.
“If they want to secede they should leave our political seats at the Coast and go and look for political seats in Nyanza,” said Chengo.
Source link-the-star.co.ke
