Coast political party not a priority, says Mung’aro

The formation of a political party for the Coast region ahead of the 2017 elections is not a priority, Kilifi MP Gideon Mung’aro has said.

Mr Mung’aro who is also the Coast Parliamentary Group chairman and believed to be behind the crusade for the formation of such a party, said forming such a party was not in the agenda for now.

He said forming a Coast-based political party had never been the main agenda for the Coast from the beginning and blamed the media for giving that impression.

“We have always agitated for Coast unity. That was our agenda as leaders from this region from the beginning. The idea that we wanted to form a political party for the Coast region is wrong,” he said.

Addressing Nation.co.ke at North Coast Beach Hotel in Kikambala, Kilifi County on Friday, Mr Mung’aro said when unity is achieved, other things will “naturally fall in place” including the formation of a political party.

COAST UNITY

“Our main agenda is to achieve unity of all the people in all the six counties in the Coast. A political party is not the priority,” he said.

Mr Mung’aro, who is also the Cord Chief Whip in Parliament, was supported by two MPs from Kilifi who also accused the media of “spoiling our agenda”.

Magarini MP Mwalimu Harrison Garama Kombe and his Kaloleni counterpart Mr Gunga Mwinga said the media had erroneously pursued and promoted the agenda of a Coast political party.

“Every time we spoke of unity, you twisted the agenda towards a political party. You see now, you spoilt for us,” said Kombe.

He said this caused jittery and suspicion among the two big political coalitions in the country – Cord and Jubilee – leading to some leaders scheming to remove Mr Mung’aro as the Chief Whip.

“Some politicians somewhere became quite uneasy with the idea so much so that they started a scheme to remove Mr Mung’aro from party leadership in Parliament.

But we stood by him and will continue to do so. Now, all this will end when Coast is solidly united,” he said.

Mr Mwinga said Coast had been divided along party and ethnic lines for many decades in the past. Leaders had now realised that unity was the way forward, he added.

Mr Mun’garo said Coast leaders were united in the resolve to unite the people so as to achieve “water-tight” solidarity.

“We are still vigorously pursuing the agenda of Coast unity. We want to reach a stage where the entire Coast will speak with one voice. When they decide unanimously that we will go here, then everybody goes there,” he said.

NO LONGER DIVIDE VOTERS

He reiterated that during the 2017 General Election, such unity will have been achieved and warned big political parties that they will no longer have chance to divide the voters.

“I want to repeat once more that we shall be in the next government irrespective of which party forms it, Jubilee or Cord.

This is because we shall put all our votes in one presidential ballot box after all the people decide who to vote for.

Let me tell them that this time round, we shall be strong and won’t be swayed or divided. We shall speak with one voice as Coast region,” he said.

Mr Mung’aro’s stand seems to be a retreat from the earlier one which was seen to be a push for a Coast political party that would even sponsor a presidential candidate in the 2017 poll.

Leaders from the region have been pushing for the formation of a political party for the Coast region.

The push even led to the Dabaso Declaration during Mr Mung’aro’s home-coming party and the Ngao Declaration during the home-coming party for Kenya Ports Authority Chairman Danson Mungatana.

Leaders have in the past complained that the region had been marginalised economically since independence with “people from outside” misusing the voters to ascend to power.