ODM leader Raila Odinga has urged the Coast people to support the Building Bridges Initiative when it goes to the referendum.
Raila said the document was the only solution to the protracted historical land injustices, inequality and corruption.
The former Prime Minister said Coast should a 100 per cent embrace the BBI knowing that it will bring positive change in their lives.
“If there are people who have really suffered through land disputes it is the coastal residents, but the good thing is that the BBI report is there to end that,” he said.
Raila spoke on Friday at Samburu in Kwale county on his fifth and final BBI popularisation campaign tour at the Coast.
He said land injustices was the main problem for the coastal people since the colonial period.
The ODM leader said the era for residents to live like squatters in their ancestral land must end. “We want to have a permanent solution in the BBI, the habit of residents being evicted from their homes will be a thing of the past thing,” said Raila.
He said the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020 also targets to grow the blue economy, industrialisation and create more employment opportunities for residents.
Raila said local fishermen will be empowered to move from the inferior fishing methods to modern and effective ones.
He said the document aims to get rid of the foreigners who have gotten hold of the coastal seas and offer unfair stiff competition to residents.
The ODM boss said youth will be well represented constitutionally through the national youth commission.
He furthers said the report supports the gender balance and empowers both women and youth as well as encouraging grassroots development.
His sentiments come after Kwale residents raised an alarm over the increased land grabbing at the Coast.
Kwale Woman Rep Zuleikha Hassan said residents were being harassed by tycoons who take advantage of the Coast people’s kindness.
Kwale Senator Issa Boi also criticised the land grabbing vice saying residents had gone through enough and urged Raila to intervene.
He said residents have witnessed so many injustices and there was need for sanity to be brought.
Recently over 1,000 families in Diani were forcibly evicted from their land.
Suna East MP Junet Mohammed slammed some Kwale leaders for leading campaigns of division and hatred.
He said the only way to beat the land injustice problems was for the leaders to unite under a common ground.
“We are brothers and sisters, why should we grab each other’s land and fault one another,” he said.
Junet warned residents against colluding with the perpetrators to deprive their colleagues’ rights.
-Edited by Sarah Kanyara
