Coast professionals hit out at Governor Mvurya for backing Jubilee

Coast professionals have accused Governor Salim Mvurya of betraying Kwale residents by supporting Jubilee. And Mr Mvurya's long-time friend and founder chairman of the Kwale Professionals Forum, Issah Chipera, has declared he will face the governor in the next General Election.

Dr Chipera, who worked with Mvurya at Plan International Kenya for a decade and later supported his bid for the governorship, announced yesterday that he would challenge his friend because he felt he had betrayed his supporters.

Speaking from Uganda where he is the Plan International country director, Chipera said he had abandoned the race for Kwale's senatorial seat "just to fill the vacuum" created by Mvurya's likely departure from ODM.

"Since Governor Mvurya made a statement that he would support Jubilee and asked the people of Kwale to back the Government, I have decided to contest the governor's seat on an ODM ticket.

"All along I have been campaigning for the senatorial position while backing Governor Mvurya but I am now going for his seat to fill the vacuum," Chipera said.

"There has been a feeling of betrayal in Kwale County and many people have called me to challenge the governor on an ODM ticket. He is my friend but this is politics and there is no other option but to fight it out."

Pwani University political science lecturer Halim Shauri, who is currently in Germany, asked the governor to offer a public apology.

"It's a delicate position but my opinion would be for him (governor) to apologise to the people of Kwale for making the mistake of asking them to vote Jubilee, and involve them next time he wants to make a major political decision like this one," he said.

Prof Shauri said Coast residents were not blind to the marginalisation and historical injustices that the Government has failed to fix or even offer a genuine apology for.

"Mvurya thinks that because he has put up a few nursery schools he can now erase all the pain and anguish of the locals and lead them to Jubilee. This is a fallacy and Mvurya is digging his own grave of political oblivion," he added.

But Taita Taveta University principal Hamadi Boga, the Kwale Professionals Forum's founder secretary, said the governor had a democratic right to decide what to do.

"Maybe through his calculations he sees this as the best move. The jury is out there. The electorate will also do their own calculations and see what is good," said Prof Boga.