Coastal unity remains a mirage unless Mijikenda speak in one voice

Last week, Matano Chengo and a group of coastal politicians announced the setting up of a new party called Umoja. Matano spoke with a hint of sadness and anger. Matano had been the Chairman of the Jubilee Party of Kenya in Mombasa. Before that, he was chairman of The National Alliance (TNA) and before that he was chairman of Party of National Unity (PNU).

For as long as any Coastal politician could remember, he had stood firm with parties from Central Kenya in a region where such parties were extremely unpopular. Matano and I struggled to sell Jubilee and we managed to get the president a hundred thousand votes, the highest number Jubilee and its predecessors has ever got. After the 2017 elections, I struggled from office to office to try and get Matano appointed to any parastatal board, but in vain. Matano was Jubilee One in the Coast.