Kenya’s Coast MPs differ over formation of political party

President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) in consultation with Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung'aro (right) at State House in Mombasa. The President was meeting Coast Parliamentary Leaders. PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD

MOMBASA: Coast MPs who attended a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House Mombasa on Friday have clashed over a memorandum read by Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro calling for a Coast based political party.

Mr Mung’aro caught many members of the National Assembly and about 1,000 grassroots leaders by surprise when he read a document alleging local legislators had agreed to form a party for the Coast, which they would use to contest the next polls and bargain with other political parties.

Murmurs spread through the meeting but no one stood to protest immediately and Uhuru did not respond to that aspect of the memorandum, which also called for land reforms including settlement of squatters, youth employment, tackling radical Islam doctrines,drug trafficking and revival of tourism and collapsed factories.

But no sooner had the MPs left the meeting where senators and governors were not invited, than cracks emerged with some MPs accusing Mung’aro and his allies of trying to hijack the meeting to advance his own goals including his rebellion within the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

Mung’aro’s opponents alleged that he and his friends introduced the matter of the proposed party without informing the rest but the Kilifi North MP’s friends claimed all leaders invited to the meeting had agreed to present that idea to the President.

Besides other grassroots leaders, 33 legislators attended the meeting.

Mung’aro was backed by Kwale Woman Representative Zainab Chidzuga, who said the time had come for local leaders to form a party they will use to fight the next polls.

However, Mombasa Woman Representative Mishi Mboko said local leaders had neither discussed the idea nor reached a consensus.

BARGAINING POWER

“I am not part of the decision, which some leaders claim Coast leaders will have their own political party for the next General Election” she said.

Ms Mboko said the decision to meet President Kenyatta should not be misunderstood that the Opposition had defected to Jubilee.

Mboko insisted that local leaders had agreed on searching for a platform to enable the coast people to have a bargaining power but not a political party.

Uhuru assured the leaders that he was committed to development in every part of the country. Sunday Nyali MP Awiti Bolo also confirmed reports that Chidzuga and Mung’aro raised the idea of the party and made it look like all leaders in the meeting had agreed on this matter.

They have a right to say what they want but that does not bind the leaders in the region, which has many people with divergent views over the political party they support,” said Mr Bolo.

Malindi MP Dan Kazungu said the President had agreed to return in six months to address some of the problems they had raised.

As Coast MPs we are happy because the President has promised to come back to Mombasa after six months to issue title deeds to the landless,” said Mr Kazungu.

Kazungu, who is an ally of Mungaro, admitted that they discussed politics in the region but declined to disclose what they discussed.