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Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and his Kilifi counterpart Amason Kingi last week stayed away from the annual Council of Governors conference in Kwale, where the president warned governors against secession talk, saying those who operate outside that order will be dealt with firmly.
Joho’s director of communication, Richard Chacha, however explained that the governor could not attend the conference because he was busy “lighting the Christmas tree and chairing his Cabinet”.
Joho and Kingi, Jubilee’s fiercest critics outside Nyanza, however described the president as dictatorial, and aloof and dared the government to arrest them.
“He (Uhuru) should talk to us about our dignity before lecturing us on territorial integrity,” Joho said in response to Uhuru’s threats against separatist movement at the Coast.
Joho said that over 1,200 delegates from six counties in the Coast will meet mid-January in Mombasa to deliberate on self-determination in a show of defiance against Uhuru’s warning, with Kingi revealing that local and international lawyers have been engaged to guide the separatist agenda.
“Uhuru’s warning or threats are exactly the same issued by his father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta during the rise of Mwambao movement. Threats won’t work,” said Kingi.
Kingi argues that Coast has unique historical facts or reasons to push for self-determination, and declared that, “Even if all other regions abandon the push, Coast will soldier on. Sir James Robertson negotiated and the sultan was paid a paltry $675,000 (Sh69 million in current exchange rate) to sell our dignity to the Kenya protectorate. We want our dignity back,” declared Kingi during the inaugural People’s Assembly Conference at Sun N’ Sand in Kilifi.
Other than the push for Coast to secede, Joho and Kingi have also waged war against Uhuru, accusing him of transferring port services from Mombasa to Naivasha. They claim that Jubilee’s aggressive inland depots and rail links expansion projects, once complete, will move billions of shillings in logistics and port services from Mombasa.
“When we told our people that Jubilee wants to transfer port services from Mombasa to Naivasha they (Uhuru and his Deputy William Ruto) mocked us. But that is what they are doing,” said Joho.
The Jubilee administration is aggressively expanding inland container depots, with the establishment of an ultra-modern dry port in Naivasha. The Naivasha facility and other Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) inland container depots will provide storage of cargo, especially those destined for neighbouring countries.
According to Dr David Ndii, an economist and NASA strategist, the facility will render Mombasa’s logistics and multi-million shilling CFS (container freight station) business irrelevant.
“We saw Uhuru inspect the underground rail tunnel. The SGR will evacuate more than 40 per cent of the total containers that pass through Mombasa. This will lead to massive job losses in Mombasa,” Ndii said.
Opinion is sharply divided on whether the hostility between two county bosses and the national government should continue, or if, in the fullness of time, Joho and Kingi will enter some kind of rapprochement with Uhuru and Jubilee.
Joho’s spokesman explained that the governor’s differences with Uhuru mainly stem from Jubilee regime’s failure to appreciate the roles of the counties on the implementation of mashinani projects.
“The governor spoke openly about these issues before the president. If those are the differences, then I can assure you it (the stalemate) will continue,” said Chacha, in a bid to clarify that Joho’s beef with Uhuru is not personal. In their first term of office, the relationship between Uhuru and Joho was defined by confrontations and insults, with the president even barring the governor from his functions in Mombasa.
Observers say that Jubilee is also keen on elevating former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar to counter Joho’s and Kingi’s influence in the region as Deputy President William Ruto starts assembling his team for the 2022 presidential campaign.
While President Uhuru is spoiling for a fight with the two governors, Ruto is said to be tactful in his approach, as he tries to reach out to any strong political figure to boost his chances of winning.
Pwani University lecturer Hassan Mwakimako argues that while Uhuru has been taking on Joho and Kingi, DP Ruto has been tactfully quiet to avoid political friction with Coast politicians whom he may need to form his winning team.
He however notes that President Uhuru cannot impose his will on Joho and Kingi.
“If President Uhuru continues imposing his opinion on other leaders at the Coast, he will not create a positive position for dialogue. Nobody benefits from this standoff. Ideally, we want leaders who respect one another,” he argues.
