Lamu’s two-horse race that never took place

Reinstated Lamu Gorvernor Issa Timamy. (Photo:File/Standard)

By Patrick Beja

Lamu, Kenya: It was a by-election that never was. It was believed that millions of shillings had been raised for the two-horse Lamu gubernatorial race that was scheduled for December 2 and which was cut short by a court of appeal ruling.

Mr Issa Timamy of UDF and Mr Fahim Yassin Twaha were headed for a political battle of their lives until the court reinstated Mr Timamy as governor.

Sources said political duel could have been splashed with cash because several political and business people had interest in the outcome.

Independent sources claimed one political camp was backed with a Sh600 million kitty to influence the election with the 14,000 votes from the Kikuyu dominated Mpeketoni division as the main prize.

Campaigns were cut short by the court verdict last week when they had reached fever pitch after causing much ethnic tensions in the region. Land allocation politics dominated the political landscape with fears that radical reforms championed by Timamy could work against people who settled in Lamu from elsewhere in the country.

But Timamy said of the ruling: “The court has finally served the people of Lamu justice. It has given them back their victory.”

On his part, Twaha said he would lodge an immediate appeal at the Supreme Court because the March 4 election in the county was “just a circus and irregular”.

“I am particularly dismayed by the fact that the court of appeal differed reasons for reinstating Timamy as governor until December 10,” he said vowing to stop his swearing in as governor.

He claimed Timamy was reinstated by the court at a time when he had lost grip on the ground following differences with many people.

 A resident Mr Abubakar Mohamed Khatib claims the court ruling ended rising tension following tribal sentiments in the campaigns.

“The campaigns had whipped up tribal tension and animosity after one camp claimed one candidate did not have love for immigrant population. This had reached dangerous levels because we have all along lived peacefully. There was bad politics about this by-election,” Khitab says.

“We expect Timamy to bring change particularly streamlining land allocation and to attract investors,” another resident Mr Mohamed Abdalla adds.

Mr Hassan Ali hopes that Timamy will now embark on his earlier plans to reform the land sector, supply piped water from the mainland to islands to the East of the county, improve roads, health and education sectors.

“In the six months he was governor Timamy had initiated programmes that we hoped could transform lives,” Ali says.