Stop blackmailing Coast, Joho and Kingi tell Jubilee

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho (centre) listens to Kisauni MP Rashid Bedzimba during an ODM rally at Kijiwe Tanga in Malindi. Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi (right) also addressed the rally. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED]

Malindi, Kenya: The two governors urged Coast residents to resist Jubilee’s plots and pressure to abandon the Opposition.

Mr Kingi  said it was wrong for the Jubilee Government to force Opposition MPs and their supporters in Coast region to join or support the Jubilee government as a pre-condition for development.

He said development was the right of all Kenyans regardless of their political affiliations cautioned President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto against arm-twisting tricks.

“The Jubilee administration has been poaching ODM and CORD leaders and use them to lure Coast people to support the Government before they get development and that will not be allowed,” said Kingi.

Joho said days are gone when politicians used to beg the president to get development as the new Constitution demands that it takes development to all Kenyans regardless of their political affiliations.

The two were speaking during a campaign rally at Kijiwetanga near Malindi to drum up support for Willy Mtengo, the ODM candidate for the Malindi March 7 by-election.

Kingi (Kilifi) and Joho (Mombasa) were in Malindi for the third day since Monday, meeting ODM supporters, religious leaders and addressing political rallies.

The two governors and three MPs from Kilifi and Mombasa counties addressed a politically at Msabaha outside Malindi town, a day after another rally at Kijiwetanga outside the same town.

On Monday, they met Muslim religious leaders and youth groups with Kingi accusing Jubilee government of not being committed to devolution.

Joho and Kisauni MP Rashid Bedzimba accused outgoing Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa of misleading Kenyans about gangs at the Coast.

They told a rally that Marwa’s claims on Monday that some politicians were sponsoring gangs in Kisauni was a plot to divert attention from State-sponsored thuggery, allegedly targeting the Malindi by-election.

Joho and Bedzimba challenged Marwa to explain why the State was not arresting the masterminds of the alleged gangs.

Mtengo claimed he has been approached by tycoons he did not name to ditch ODM and support the Jubilee candidate and said he cannot leave the Opposition party.

Kingi and Joho addressed CORD supporters in Kijiwetanga, near Malindi, accompanied by several MPs from Mombasa and Kilifi where they claimed Jubilee government was using blackmail to woo certain local legislators to support it.

The two governors have grown, increasingly, estranged from Jubilee’s top leadership after disagreeing with the President publicly, when the Head of State visited Coast for 29 days in December last year through to last month. They said Coast people will not follow rebel CORD MPs supporting Jubilee or join the ruling coalition.

The leaders said Uhuru and his Government would not gain support in Coast by using rebel CORD leaders whose conduct they claimed was suspect.

The governors were accompanied by Kilifi County MP Aisha Jumwa, Kisauni MP Rashid Bedzimba and Mvita’s Abdulswamad Nassir.

The ODM leaders held the rally at Kijiwetanga, the same place where ODM rebel MPs led by Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro campaigned for Philip Charo, Jubilee’s candidate for the Malindi by-election on Saturday.

Jumwa accused ODM rebel MPs in Coast led by Mung’aro of using the Coast people as a bait to get financial gains from the Government.

Bedzimba said ODM supporters need not plead for development from the national government as it was their constitutional right.