Politicians eyeing the Mombasa governor seat in 2022 are walking a tight rope, with the political parties that they rode to Parliament influencing their stand on the SGR.
ODM, Jubilee and Wiper want the government policy of hauling all cargo to Naivasha enforced so Kenya can pay the debt it owes China.
But residents who are significantly hurt want the policy, which Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir once described as ‘the snake’, removed and the mode of haulage left to importers to decide.
ODM, Jubilee and Wiper have signed deals to work together.
MPs, who represent both the political parties and the people, are therefore caught between a rock and a hard place.
So far, at least five politicians have expressed interest in succeeding Governor Hassan Joho.
They are Suleiman Shahbal (Jubilee), MPs Nassir (Mvita, ODM), Ali Mbogo (Kisauni, Wiper) and Mishi Mboko (Likoni, ODM), Mombasa Deputy Governor William Kingi (ODM) and former Mombasa county secretary Francis Thoya (tentatively ODM).
ODM, which is the most popular party in the county, has a deal with Jubilee, the ruling party.
They are supposed to be working together and it is now unlikely to see ODM opposing a Jubilee stand.
In Mombasa, it is almost a given that an ODM ticket will win one a seat.
Enter Nyali MP Mohamed Ali, an independent MP, with his impeachment motion against Transport CS James Macharia, and the waters were stirred.
Ali has been accused by Mbogo of bringing up a populist motion so as to endear himself to the masses.
“If we are looking for the governor position, let us use different means. Let us not bring populist motions that will not help the common mwananchi,” Mbogo said last Thursday.
He says as MPs from the Coast, they have been in meetings with both Macharia and Interior CS Fred Matiang’i about the SGR and that “basically, the orders [forcing cargo haulage by SGR] were suspended.”
Mbogo says the impeachment motion against Macharia is unnecessary and that it will serve no purpose.
However, Ali insists he is not interested in the governor position for now and that he will defend his Nyali MP seat in 2022.
He says Mbogo and the others have been compromised for their selfish interests.
“I will stand with the truth and the truth is that Mombasa’s economy is being killed by the government and the people are suffering as a result. Businesses are shutting and jobs lost,” Ali said on Saturday.
Shahbal has called for sobriety over the whole saga.
He says he agrees with Ali’s sentiments about the economy of Mombasa but has devised a different approach to address the matter.
He says Macharia's impeachment will fail because of the numbers that the government has in Parliament.
Instead, Shahbal has been rooting for the completion of the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone, which he says will create more jobs than the Mombasa port.
Nassir has also opposed the impeachment motion, saying he advised Ali to take a different approach.
He said the bad policies are the enemy and not individuals in government.
Those looking to succeed Governor Joho are careful not to antagonize either the sector’s stakeholders or the handshake government.
On Sunday, Fast Action Business Community, Haki Africa and Kenya Transporters Association threatened to initiate the process of recalling MPs Mbogo and Mboko for opposing Ali.
“It is sad that the same MP whose constituent was forced to boil stones to feed her children because of the poor economy now says everything is okay,” said Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid.
Fast Action chairman Salim Karama and secretary general Harriet Muganda have been leading calls for the recalling of the two MPs.
On Sunday, political analyst Mwakuja Mrombo said Ali’s impeachment motion has exposed the dilemma that the Mombasa politicians eyeing the governor's seat are in.
“The motion has brought to the fore what has always been known in politics. It is about interests. Even Ali himself is serving some unknown people’s interests,” Mrombo said.
He said when Joho was fighting President Uhuru over the same SGR, Ali was against Joho.
Now it is the opposite, he said.
“Joho has gone quiet since the handshake and now it is Ali making noise. Which means the people who were using Joho to push their agenda are now using Ali to do the same because Joho has turned,” the analyst said.
Mrombo said the SGR issue did not only affect Mombasa but also the other regions and that was why MPs from other regions had joined in the battle.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, a close friend of Ali, has this time opposed the former journalist, Mrombo noted, adding that Nyoro knows the benefits of having the Naivasha Dry Port operational.
“There are people who have invested in this thing and it should not be looked at from the Mombasa or Coast point of view,” Mrombo said.
He said it would be difficult for any Mombasa or Coast politician to influence the SGR policy.
“This is because 1) This issue had been decided a long time ago and 2) Nobody knows what is being cooked,” Mrombo said.
The analyst said only a clique of the inner circle know what is going on.
“The Shahbals, the Nassirs and the Mbogos prefer to somehow sit on the fence because they do not know what is being cooked in the kitchen. They don’t want to take a stand and find themselves in trouble in the near future,” Mrombo said.
Edited by Henry Makori
