Jubilee's assault on critics ill-thought-out

It might not be his making, or it could, because he is a politician; but President Uhuru Kenyatta has been caught in a few deliberate misrepresentations of facts to the public in the span of a few days. 

And as the adage goes; he who laughs last laughs the loudest. Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho is having a field day down Coast.

Only last week, Uhuru launched the Mtongwe ferry services, but not before giving Joho a thorough dressing-down that has achieved the opposite of the desired effect. Like the phoenix, the governor has risen from the ashes, more energised and raring to go.

Ferry services in Mombasa must be the worst in Africa. Between them, they have claimed many lives, the worst being the 1994 Mtongwe ferry disaster that took 272 lives. Since that fateful day more than two decades ago, it has been pledge after unfulfilled pledge to overhaul ferry services at the Mtongwe and Likoni crossings.

The best that ever happened was the purchase of MV Kwale and MV Likoni at a cost of Sh1 billion from Germany in 2010.But were they new?

Joho’s dig at Uhuru after ‘launching a 38-year-old’ contraption that is in the habit of dying mid channel and needs to be coaxed back to life points to the inability of those in authority to think beyond political scores.

In 2015, the Kenya Ferry Services announced it had purchased two ferries at a cost of Sh600 million that would be delivered in January 2016. Well, if you haven’t noticed, this is 2017, and still waiting.

But the point is, while new ferries might ease congestion only temporally because, being machines and prone to poor maintenance and over-use, they can only serve for a couple of years before breaking up. And die early they must, otherwise how would the serial pilferers dip their sticky fingers in the till to yank out bundles of cash for ‘routine maintenance’?

Thinking long-term demands that crossings in the mould of the Nyali Bridge be erected over the channels.

This is a one-time undertaking that would consequently save billions of shillings and stop constant friction between the national government and Mombasa County over who should take charge of the ferry services.

In 2015, the Mombasa County Assembly passed a bill giving authority to control ferry services to the county government, but being cash-strapped and wanting in tax collection, it was setting itself up for the type of exposure Uhuru picked on to blow Jubilee’s trumpet, and paint the county government in bad light.

Nevertheless, something did not sound right.

If by inflating the figure the national government had given the Mombasa County government from Sh21 billion to Sh40 billion was intended to besmirch Joho’s reputation, it was the worst form of ill-thought-out propaganda.

First, remittances are documented and Uhuru should have thought of that. Because he did not, the perception is that he is out on a mission to consign Joho to political oblivion.

Since his government has withdrawn Joho’s security detail, invaded Joho’s businesses looking for what is yet to be found, attempted to tie him to some obscure trade and now having the Kenya Revenue Authority ferret in his businesses besides the president having issues with a simple title like ‘sultan’, Joho comes out a saint.

Uhuru assumes the villain tag and even if Joho actually misappropriated funds, he can easily play the innocent guy because the Government comes across as vindictive and tirelessly groping in the dark to get a handle on him.

Ominous revelations on the Last Mile Electricity project where over 1 million connections exist in never-never land take the shine off Jubilee’s long list of improbable achievements. Alternately, there has been talk of 11,000 kilometres and 6,000 kilometres of roads having been carpeted.

In his last State of the Nation address recently, Uhuru talked of his government having tarmacked over 7,000 kilometres. Unless the figures are utopian too, one wonders; which is which?

Jubilee exhibits symptoms of feeling dizzy. The party may not be as strong and assured as it affects. The President’s irritability lately while picking on strong Opposition governors for personalised attacks, the sacking of a top Jubilee party official, launching anything in sight just to resonate well with the electorate are markers of frustration and desperation.

The little red electronic card has induced hopelessness within the party, and many feel trapped in a veritable gulag.

The heat is on and if the animosity the Nairobi gubernatorial seat has generated is indicative of what lies ahead, Jubilee is in for a hard time, forget the falsely brave but empty rhetoric. Nominations could be its waterloo.

Mr Chagema is a Correspondent at The Standard [email protected]