- Omar said there is need for the government to seek funds from the private sector to invest in the port.
- He also warned the KPA managing director Captain William Ruto against turning the port into a cash cow for a few selected people.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
The government is not planning to privatise the Mombasa port, UDA vice chairman Hassan Omar has said.
Omar said ODM leaders in Mombasa are spreading falsehoods that the port will be privatised to whip up emotions against the Kenya Kwanza administration.
Responding to Likoni MP Mishi Mboko, who claimed there are plans to privatise the port, Omar said the Kenya Kwanza administration is keen to see the facility raise productivity and efficiency and make it more transparent and accountable.
“There is what we call public-private partnership. So if you Mishi Mboko have money come and invest at the Mombasa port,” Omar said on Saturday in Mombasa.
He said there is need for the government to seek funds from the private sector to invest in the port, adding that the Lamu port is not doing as well as envisaged because there are not enough investors there.
The former Mombasa senator also warned the Kenya Ports Authority managing director Captain William Ruto against turning the port into a cash cow for a few selected people.
He said he did not fight cartels in the port only for one of the UDA appointees to turn out to be same as the cartels or even worse.
“Be careful. Our youth here should get jobs from that port. We did not remove the (former Mombasa governor Hassan) Johos from that place only to have other Johos there. Ensure issues of the port are above board,” Omar said.
At the same time, the EALA MP said the international community has recognised Kenya as a strong democracy and in the process vindicated President William Ruto’s electoral win in the 2022 general election.
He said the visits to Kenya by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the past week, coupled with US First Lady Jill Biden’s visit in February, show that they have faith in the government.
“The great nations in the world recognise Kenya’s democracy, leadership and government,” Omar said, even as he hit out at Azimio leader Raila Odinga, saying he has no clear economic agenda and is only hell-bent on getting power through dubious means.
He accused the ODM chief of always trying to sabotage any government that is in place in the country but warned that President Ruto is not the kind of person to be easily blackmailed into doing things he does not want.
The Kenya Kwanza administration has been pushing its bottom-up economic transformation agenda, which Omar said needs a peaceful environment to prosper.
And with the opposition calling for demonstrations, the implementation of the agenda wont be achieved easily, according to the UDA vice chairperson.
Omar cautiously praised Raila for getting his troops back to the negotiation table with Kenya Kwanza on the bipartisan talks after a deadlock.
However, he warned the former Prime Minister that he must allow the bipartisan talks to go on in good faith and ensure that there is a logical conclusion to the negotiations.
“If you think IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) is the problem, we will fix it. But even if you fix IEBC 10 times, we will defeat you. Accept election loss and go home,” he told Raila.
The EALA MP warned that the Azimio side, once it senses defeat, will always look for reasons to disengage.
“We have been in ODM. We know their tactics.”
And speaking during the launch the G-15 women group, an economic empowerment tool for women in Mombasa (made up of staunch UDA supporters), nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi said the country’s economy is on its recovery under the stewardship of President Ruto.
“The economy of a country is not developed by protests and demonstrations. It is not developed by grandstanding,”Abdillahi said, even as she called on Mombasa residents to help the president achieve his goals.
She likened Raila to one of the women in the Bible who agreed to have a baby she was claiming to be hers to be cut into two by King Solomon in order for her to share it with another woman who equally claimed the baby was hers.
“You cannot claim the baby is yours then go ahead and want it cut into two. President William Ruto is like King Solomon,” she said.
Abdillahi echoed Omar’s sentiments that the Kenya Kwanza victory was genuine and that the Azimio leader failed to prove his case in court.
She said she is the perfect example of the Ruto’s bottom-up economic agenda where anybody can sit at the top of the hierarchy so long as they have the brains.
“Today, the daughter of a fried potato seller sits in the Senate of Parliament and that is because she was given an opportunity,” Abdillahi said, adding that Mombasa residents should continue maintaining peace and not engage in the protests called by Azimio.