Murimi Mutiga @murimimutiga
President Uhuru Kenyatta will be visiting Lamu County beginning tomorrow with a basket full of goodies to the residents as he seeks to sell his new development and political agenda ahead of the 2017 elections.
Among them is the tarmacking of the Witu-Mokowe road whose tenders for construction works he said would be floated in two weeks. Uhuru, who met a delegation of about 150 leaders from the county at State House Mombasa, asked residents to support his new Jubilee Party and help build a united Kenya.
The President said he will visit Mpeketoni tomorrow where he is expected to issue title deeds to seven Swahili villages in Mkunumbi and later attend the Maulid Festival at the archipelago on Friday.
Uhuru has postponed several planned visits to Lamu mainly due to the state on insecurity. “I will ensure this road is tarmacked this year to ensure Lamu moves at the same pace with the rest of Kenya in term of infrastructure development,” he said.
He said the road will open up the area for investment and tourism apart from boosting security which has been a major problem in the recent past. Commissioning of the construction of the first three berths of the Lamu Port which has been cancelled three times is not in the agenda of the President’s visit.
While asking the residents to support ongoing security operation in the area to flush out member of the al Shabaab who have been hiding in Boni forest, the President said improved security will boost tourism which has been a major source of income for the local community.
“We are committed to improving security in the county so that residents live in peace,” he said. The Head of State said his government will release Sh100 million in it’s supplementary budget for improvement of hospitals in the county, in line with Jubilee’s administration objective of upgrading two health facilities in each county to referral facilities.
However, the meeting with the President was not without sideshows with Governor Issa Timamy’s and Lamu West MP Julius Ndegwa’s supporters exchanging heated works.
This led to the locking out of some of the leaders from the meeting, with Timamy’s 2013 gubernatorial seat rival Fahim Twaha being one of the casualties.
Senator Abu Chiaba was shouted down by some of the delegates as he spoke. Timamy said he will rally the people of Lamu behind Uhuru’s leadership so that the county can move forward in realizing development like other parts of the country.
“We know you have good plans for Kenya and we as the representatives of the people of Lamu want to assure you that we will support and rally our people behind you,” Timamy said.
MPs Ndegwa, Athman Shariff (Lamu East), Assembly speaker Hashim Fumo assured the President they will support his development and political agenda for the region.
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