Coast leaders seek party for 2017

PHOTO | GEORGE KIKAMI Lunga Lunga MP Khatib Mwashetani (left) with Mombasa Women Representative Mishi Mboko and Kwale County Assembly member Kassam Pojjo at Dabaso on Saturday, during the home-coming party for Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro. The leaders said they would form a party to unite the Coast region ahead of the 2017 General Election.  NATION

In Summary

• Mr Mung’aro, who is also the Coast Parliamentary Group chairman, was given the responsibility during a thanksgiving party at his Dabaso home on Saturday.
• Most leaders who spoke at the event voiced similar views except Mombasa Deputy Governor Hazel Katana who said it was too early.

By Nation Correspondent
More by this Author

Coast leaders have asked Cord chief whip Gideon Mung’aro to lead the formation of a party that will be used as the region’s vehicle during the 2017 General Election.

Mr Mung’aro, who is also the Coast Parliamentary Group chairman, was given the responsibility during a thanksgiving party at his Dabaso home on Saturday.

He had earlier discussed the idea with one governor, four senators, three women representatives and 10 MPs from the region’s five counties.

During the thanksgiving, Mr Mung’aro said that time had come for the region to have its own party which it would use to ascend to power in the next elections.

“As Coast leaders, our stand is that we should remain as a team, and then work on modalities of forming a party that will have the voice of the Coast people. And with that we will have a bargaining power in the next government,” Mr Mung’aro said.

SIMILAR VIEWS

Most leaders who spoke at the event voiced similar views except Mombasa Deputy Governor Hazel Katana who said it was too early.

“What we should be doing right now is to deliver services to the people and unless we do this it will be difficult to sell the idea to them,” she said.

But, Mr Mung’aro said “the mission” to establish a coastal party was unstoppable.

In what they said was “the Dabaso Declaration”, other leaders supporting the idea gave Mr Mung’aro the green light to set up a secretariat that will involve professionals, business people, teachers, university students and locals to work on the party’s political strategies.

Although he welcomed the idea, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi warned that earlier attempts at promoting unity among Coast leaders had failed because of betrayal.