Lamu port, land key issues ahead of polls

By Patrick Beja

Lamu County Aspirants have singled out the port and resettlement of squatters as main policies in campaigns

Port and land matters now dominate politics in Lamu County as various politicians intensify the hunt for votes for governor and other key positions.

Politicians have turned the port and resettlement of squatters as fodder in the ensuing campaigns.

Residents and politicians have come up with a list of demands to the Government before the construction of Lamu port kicks off.

They want full compensation for land in the designated port site for locals, including squatters.

They are also demanding that 30 per cent of proceeds from the Lamu port be reserved for development of the county.

The residents also want to be given priority in the allocation of jobs once the port is developed. “We are going to demand an agreement to be signed between Government and Lamu residents to ensure the county reaps meaningful benefits from the port and not all proceeds are taken to the central government,” a gubernatorial aspirant, Issa Timamy, stated yesterday.

The UDF aspirant spoke when he addressed a campaign rally at Mpeketoni town at the weekend.

The Lamu port steering committee headed by former Lamu County Council Chairman Abdalla Fadhil is also pushing the Government to ensure the port fully benefits local residents.

Mr Timamy, who was accompanied by Lamu UDF senatorial aspirant Hassan Albeity, unveiled Eric Mugo as gubernatorial running mate in a move seen to attract the Kikuyu community votes in the cosmopolitan county.

In Lamu, politicians are seeking ethnic inclusiveness as a way of winning votes particularly from the Kikuyu-dominated Mpeketoni Division.

At the weekend, the campaign team of the Lamu TNA gubernatorial aspirant and outgoing Lamu West MP Fahim Twaha criss-crossed Mpeketoni town in the hunt for votes.

TNA senatorial aspirant and outgoing Lamu East MP Abu Chiaba also spent time in Mpeketoni town at the weekend.

Mr Swaleh Imu is also seeking the Lamu gubernatorial seat on an Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) ticket.

Mr Albeity said elders from all communities in Lamu County have endorsed the selection of Mr Mugo as it would ensure cohesiveness.

Grazing corridors

Mugo said the Mpeketoni elders forum selected him to be Timamy’s running mate and he had to abandon his ambitions to contest the Lamu parliamentary seat on a Narc ticket.

Mr Timamy rooted for the introduction of irrigated agriculture, creation of grazing corridors to avoid conflict between pastoralists and farmers as witnessed in the Tana Delta and revival of cotton farming by seeking markets for the crop whose prices have dropped for the last 15 years.