Kenyans should not blindly vote for politicians who seek power under false pretences and promises, Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi has said.
Mudavadi said the high levels of corruption, mismanagement of the economy and high cost of living for Kenyans were a result of a leadership that thrives on lies and deception to ascend to office.
“If you promise what you know you cannot deliver, you are fraudulently seeking office. Once in office, you have no obligation to deliver but to continue cheating”, he said.
The ANC leader condemned the government for falsely promising to tarmac the Kinango-Samburu road and repair the Lunga Lunga road that links Kenya to Tanzania. If tarmacked, that could open Kwale County to tourism development as the road snakes from Tsavo National Park and would be a bypass into the South Coast tourist hub avoiding the inconveniences of breakdowns of Likoni Ferry.
“For how long should the people of Kwale and investors wait for tarmac, two years since the promise was made? To starve people of infrastructure is part of deception and corruption that has become part and parcel of our politics”, he said.
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Mudavadi was responding to allegations by local leaders that President Uhuru Kenyatta himself promised the Kinango-Samburu road will be tarmacked by August this year. He was speaking to leaders in Msambweni on his second of a three-day meet-the-people tour of Kwale County.
He said the Jubilee leadership should not be excused on the false impression that they are youth.
“You get to be President because you are qualified and Kenyans should not be deceived that Jubilee is making mistakes because its leadership is youthful. Youth is not an excuse to get it wrong. It is matter of incompetence”, he said.
Accompanied by former MPs Abdallah Ngozi and Kassim Mwamzandi, Mudavadi decried the shoddy repair works done on the Lunga-Lunga road saying corruption must be involved.“The road I have used is in a deplorable state yet we know it had enough budgets. Someone decided proper repair will not allow them to pocket enough. Soon, more money will be allocated to be misused again”, he complained saying county governments should be involved to oversight in national projects.
He said Jubilee government if fond of lucrative projects where it “spends big and robs big”.
The former deputy prime minister later addressed leaders at Lunga Lunga border town and said illegal trade was the reason once thriving border towns were in a slump yet statistics show that inter-border trade was thriving.
“Illegal trade is taking place with connivance of government officials who are protected by godfathers. Border points are now points of transit only as the country is loosing revenue because traders have found it easy to avoid paying taxes through official customs points”, he said.
Local leaders had claimed business was low yet the amounts of food, medical and timber imports into Kenya was big business that passes through Lunga Lunga.