• The President said time had come for leaders to think of how they would like to remembered
Image: PSCU
President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged Coast leaders to unite and work closely with each other so as to achieve faster development in the region.
The President advised the leaders to have a broader and more long-term view of development saying the focus should be on projects that benefit more people through wealth and employment creation.
The President who spoke at State House, Mombasa, on Friday when he hosted elected leaders from the region told the leaders to always put the interests of wananchi ahead of all other partisan considerations.
“Let us find solutions to our challenges, there can be nothing which is impossible if we unite,” President Kenyatta told the leaders who included all Governors from the 6 coastal counties of Mombasa, Kilifi, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Kwale and Tana River.
The President said time had come for leaders to think of how they would like to remembered by current and future generations.
“We must look at our history as a country and as a region, and ask ourselves can our people as Kenyans continue to sustain politics of division, politics of hate, politics of backstabbing and still believe that we are going to be a middle income country by 2030? Is it possible?” President Kenyatta posed.
The Head of State cautioned the leaders against divisive politics saying leadership is a God given opportunity to serve all Kenyans irrespective of their stations in life.
On development, the President outlined the various mega projects being implemented by his administration in the region adding that the government will ensure all ongoing roads, water and other infrastructure developments are completed.
He said the projects such the various roads, the Dongo Kundu SEZ and the Port of Lamu are aimed at opening up the region to more investments.
President Kenyatta reiterated that the handshake between him and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was aimed at uniting all Kenyans so as to take the country's development agenda a notch higher.
“The essence of the handshake is not about who shall be where and who shall have what position but how can we as Kenyans together not live in the past but learn from it," the President told the leaders.
“We need not plan for today but live in it and plan for the future because that is what we can give as a gift to this country,” said the President.
All the leaders who spoke at the consultative meeting among them Governors Ali Hassan Joho (Mombasa), Salim Mvurya (Kwale), Amason Kingi (Kilifi), Dhadho Godhana (Tana River), Fahim Twaha (Lamu) and Granton Samboja (Taita Taveta) said they supported the President's development agenda as espoused in the Big 4 blueprint.
The Coast political leaders thanked the President for the various development projects implemented by the government saying the transformative interventions are changing the economic fortunes of the region.
“Your Excellency I want to first of all assure you we are walking with you in the journey of transforming this country of ours because after all this country belongs to all of us,” Governor Joho said.
“And for those that God has given the opportunity to be in leadership like ourselves whatever we do we put first considerations of the future generations,” he added.
Tourism CS Najib Balala, Lands CAS Gideon Mung'aro, Devolution CAS Hussein Dado and Lands PS Nicholas Muraguri also attended the State House, Mombasa meeting.