Why Ex-minister Adan Mohamed wants to be Mandera governor

Mr Adan Mohamed, who resigned from the Cabinet in February, has come out to explain why he wants to become governor of Mandera County.

In an exclusive interview with Nation.Africa, Mr Mohamed, alias Adan Jari, said he wants to use his experience in the private and public sectors to help develop his home county.

“Basically, I decided to run for the Mandera governor’s seat after strong persuasion by representatives, including religious leaders, professionals and youth, from different communities in Mandera and I accepted. I have the much needed experience and networks to bring about change,” he said.

Mr Mohamed poked holes in Governor Ali Roba’s leadership and team. Mr Roba is leaving office after serving two terms.

He said Mr Roba’s decisions to appoint himself as senator and to handpick a successor were selfish and had disappointed many residents of Mandera.

“The current regime has been a big disappointment and people are saying they want significant and fundamental change in Mandera,” he said.

He wondered why Mr Roba was fronting the county assembly Speaker who, he said, had been part of the failed administration.

Asked about negotiated democracy, which is widely practised in the region with political seats distributed among different clans, Mr Mohamed said the plan failed in 2017. He noted that clan negotiated systems tend to produce mediocre leaders, denying voters a chance to make informed decisions on leaders.

Though he acknowledged that politics involves serious negotiations, this should not happen at the expense of denying the people competent leaders.

He maintained that the best leaders come out through a democratic system.

“The process of electing leaders should be left to the electorate and not a few individuals with selfish interests,” he said.

Mr Mohamed is from the Tuff sub-clan of the Garre clan, which incidentally is Governor Roba’s clan. There are four other aspirants who come from the Quranyowa section of the Garre.

He is the only Tuff candidate.

Mr Mohamed said that he is not a career politician and is not in the race to try his luck but because the public have expressed their confidence in his plans to improve conditions in the poorest county in Kenya.

“I left a very critical national responsibility as a Cabinet minister and I am not in the race for selfish interest but to serve my people, whom I love a lot,” he said.

He is banking on his support base to win against four other candidates, including Senator Mohamed Maalim Mahamud, a career politician.

The others in the race are county assembly Speaker Mohamed Adan Khalif, Mr Hassan Noor Hassan and Mr Faisal Abdirahaman Abass.

On his achievements as a cabinet minister since 2013, Mr Mohamed said he opened up Kenya to the outside world for business.

“We signed an export trade agreement with the European Union after 15 years of negotiation and we have started a programme to make the US market accessible for Kenyan products,” he said.

He said his biggest achievement was an increase in foreign direct investments into Kenya.

“We used to have less than $300 million annually in foreign direct investments coming into the country but we have grown to $2 billion.”

He said he is better placed to attract investors to Mandera.

The north-eastern region, he said, had seen improvements in infrastructure and more needs to be done.

“Garissa County is now connected to the national grid and that is a foundation for business growth in the region,” he said.

The road networks connecting Isiolo, Wajir and Mandera counties were being improved courtesy of his position in the Cabinet.

“I have overseen the initiation of several government projects in Mandera and I believe that when I become governor I will be able to do a lot more,” he said.

He lamented that 10 years of devolution had not changed much the lives of Mandera residents, vowing to fight graft.