Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar questions Governor Joho's leadership as 2017 beckons

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar yesterday launched the first ever strategic plan by a senator with a stab at the leadership style of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.

In the two-year strategic plan for Mombasa County, Senator Omar said his office would focus on good governance, equity, human rights and increased public participation in the running of devolved functions.

The Senator has, over the last six months, been drifting away from the Governor citing an obvious difference in their political socialisation and their styles of leadership.

Omar’s function was attended by JAP Mombasa chairman Suleiman Shahbal and most tycoons that controlled Mombasa politics before Joho’s rise to power.

CORD principals Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka are said to be concerned about the widening rift between Governor Joho and Senator Omar. The Governor is ODM’s Deputy Party Leader and Senator Omar is Wiper Democratic Movement’s Secretary General, respectively. Both of them are influential leaders within CORD with unhindered access to the three coalition principals including Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula.

At the launch of the strategic plan yesterday at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Senator Omar hit out at the National Assembly accusing it of denying senators money to enhance their oversight role.

Suffering residents

He accused the National Assembly of engaging in “systematic weakening of the roles of the Senate and Senators” as provided for in the Constitution.

Omar first attacked Joho during the Muslim Holy month of Ramadhan in August after a report of the Auditor General showed that the county government could not account for Sh459 million collected from local revenue during the 2013/14 financial year.

Yesterday, he claimed the Mombasa County Assembly was “lame” and incapable of offering oversight on the Joho administration. All Mombasa Members of County Assembly were elected under CORD and have in the past come under criticism over their failure to conduct oversight role.

After outlining his strategy, Omar embarked on off the cuff remarks in which he claimed that Joho is still “my friend” but declared that there is a stark ideological difference between them which he vowed not to compromise. “If you fail to account for public funds, the people of Mombasa will make a choice of who will be the next governor,” Omar said.

The vocal senator claimed that Mombasa residents “are suffering” and losing hope over the promise of devolution due to alleged bad governance, adding that governors had joined the onslaught against devolution through bad governance.

Following the August criticism, Joho’s allies hit back accusing Omar of fabricating facts and distorting history for his political gains. They claimed that the issues raised in the auditor report were not new and have already been addressed.