Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho is contemplating moving to court over an alleged plan by the national government to cripple the county by moving port services to Naivasha.
Joho, who had previously accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of being behind the move, claimed that it was already being implemented and that it had been made mandatory for certain cargo to be transported through the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
"When I told you that the port services are being shifted, you made mockery out of it and you laughed at me.
But you will not stop me from saying you are now implementing it, I am even contemplating going to court,” Joho told Mombasa Residents on Thursday.
He spoke during the launch of a maternal theatre and a youth-friendly centre at the Tudor Sub-County Hospital.
[caption caption="Governor Joho with Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir at Tudor Sub-County Hospital on February 1"]
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Joho, however, noted that the SGR was a noble project but questioned the financing behind it.
“How do you take a Sh400 billion loan to be paid over 10 years. The government should have given a concession through public private partnership. How will you repay the loans? It will cost us as a country and a region,” he posed.
Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary, Adan Mohammed was recently taken to task by the Parliamentary Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives over the effect the Naivasha port would have on Mombasa's economy.
“We don’t want speculation or a situation that we are creating business for the people of Naivasha at the same time destroying the port in Mombasa. There are concerns that there is political alienation that since the residents are not part of Jubilee government the port is moved to Naivasha because…let me not conclude,” Vice-Chairperson Cornelly Serem stated, asking CS Mohammed to adress Mombasa residents directly.
The CS insisted that they were building the port in Naivasha to access clean, renewable energy and infrastructure.
[caption caption="Governor Joho with Kenya Red Cross Secretary-General Abbas Gullet"]
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