President Uhuru Kenyatta is a man on a mission, out to make sure his deputy does not succeed him in 2022. On Saturday, the Head of State held a four-hour closed-door meeting with the governors of Kilifi (Amason Kingi), Kwale (Salim Mvurya), Lamu (Fahim Twaha), and Mombasa (Hassan Joho) at State House in Mombasa where the region’s politics was discussed as well as next year’s politics.
Also present was Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya, who is one of the president’s political allies from Mt Kenya plus retired Chief of Staff Samson Mwathethe .
According to multiple sources from the president’s entourage, the six met after unveiling of the Shs 10 billion Kenya Marine Fisheries Socio-Economic Development Project, an initiative aimed at uplifting income of fishing communities along the Kenyan coast.
”It was politics. He will not be dragged to a public exchange. He (Uhuru) moves silently and has decided to take charge of the succession politics. All the four governors were present and have pledged to work with him in 2022,” one of the sources confided to this publication.
Speaking at the launch of the project, President Uhuru who promised to issue title deeds on his next visit to residents of the region and said his regime was way on course to complete major infrastructure projects across the country and those saying he has failed to deliver should wait for their term.
”I promised to issue title deeds to the people of Coast. Next month I will return to honour that promise and make sure land is not an issue in our politics. Those making noise, let them continue but we will continue doing our jobs to ensure the country is developed. Abusing people daily will not help,” the president said.
The project, which the government, in collaboration with the World Bank has pumped 10B, when successfully completed will hugely contribute to sustainable exploitation of Kenya’s marine fisheries.
”This represents a new dawn in the development of the coastal region, and it is a key pillar in my administration’s job and wealth creation agenda,” he added.
Mombasa Governor Ali Joho who hosted the event said lives of people living at the Kenyan Coast were closely intertwined with fishing and called for investments and policy reforms so as to ensure the sector benefits more people.
On his part, Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya who is also the Chairman of Jumuiya ya Pwani-a regional grouping of the six Coastal counties, called for the integrated development and exploitation of the blue economy and other sectors such as agribusiness, infrastructure, tourism, education and training.
Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Co-operatives Peter Munya also spoke at the event which was attended by his Treasury counterpart Ukur Yattani, Chairman of the blue economy initiative Gen. (Rtd) Samson Mwathethe among other senior Government officials and regional leaders.
