Coast MPs abandon plan for regional party

The quest for a Coast-based political party suffered a big blow at the weekend after its proponents, among them the Coast Parliamentary Group, appeared to turn against the idea.

Coast Parliamentary Group chairman Gideon Mung’aro, who had championed the idea in what came to be known as “the Dabaso Declaration,” has now said that forming such a party was not a priority.

Mining Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala, who founded the Republican Congress Party, had offered it as the vehicle to be used by leaders from the Coast in their quest for power in the 2017 General Election.

In what could be an about-turn, Mr Mung’aro, who is also Kilifi North MP, said: “We have always agitated for Coast unity; that was our agenda as leaders from this region from the beginning”.
Speaking at Northcoast Beach Hotel in Kikambala, Kilifi County, on Friday, Mr Mung’aro said that when unity is achieved, other things will “naturally fall in place”.

According to him, the idea of a Coast-based party was a creation of the media.

“Our main agenda was to achieve unity of all people in all the six counties in the Coast from Kwale to Mombasa to Taita Taveta to Kilifi to Tana River to Lamu. A political party is not the priority,” he said.

The Coast region had voted overwhelmingly in favour of Cord, now the Opposition coalition, and the change of heart could mean that leaders will not be changing allegiances.

The views expressed by Mr Mung’aro, who is also Cord Chief Whip in Parliament, were echoed by Magarini MP Harrison Garama Kombe and his Kaloleni counterpart, Mr Gunga Mwinga.

Mr Kombe said that the idea of forming a Coast-based party had caused jitters and aroused the suspicion of both Cord and Jubilee which led to the attempted removal of Mr Mung’aro as the Opposition Chief Whip.

“Some politicians somewhere became quite uneasy with the idea so much so that they started a scheme to remove Mung’aro from the 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. Leaders had now realised that unity was the way forward.
Although the leaders effectively ditched the push for a political party, they said they were still interested in uniting the region.

“We are still vigorously pursuing the agenda of Coast unity. We want to reach a stage where the whole Coast will speak with one voice. When they decide in a chorus that we will go here, then everybody goes there,” he said. “I want to repeat once more that we shall be in the next government irrespective of which party forms it; Jubilee or Cord”.

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

At his homecoming party earlier in the year, Coast politicians made what came to be known as “The Dabaso Declaration” during which they said they would support the formation of one party to be used by all leaders from the region. Only Mombasa Deputy Governor Hazel Katana had opposed the idea at the time, saying it was too early and that leaders should focus on delivering services to the electorate.

More recently, Coast leaders also came up with “the Ngao Declaration” during the homecoming party for the Kenya Ports Authority chairman Danson Mungatana when they again pushed for the formation of a Coast-based party after complaining that the region had been marginalised economically since independence.