Coast MPs need to get down to work

This column congratulates the Bahari MP Ben Fondo Gunda for his election as the new chairman of the Coast Parliamentary Group, a bipartisan regional parliamentary caucus. It was very encouraging and it gave the caucus’ election some sort of legitimacy when it saw 16 out of the 21 lawmakers from the region participating in the election.One would hope that this time around the region’s legislators, both veterans and first timers, will resolve to seriously and genuinely work together for the interest of their constituents in particular and the region in general. In his acceptance speech the first term Bahari MP aptly noted, “My biggest challenge now is to ensure that all the MPs stick together. If we push things as a group, the Government will have to act because we have a big bloc that can make a lot of difference in 2012.”

I must add that it doesn’t do the region any good when the area MPs are affiliated with different political parties, and they are usually seen to be fighting ‘other peoples’ wars’ the same way African presidents used to fight the two superpowers wars in their regions. Our lawmakers are scattered everywhere, in PNU, ODM, KANU, ODM- Kenya, Narc-Kenya and KADU-Asili, the only home grown party. It is against this backdrop that I would remind the Coast MPs to read and ponder seriously the comments penned by columnist Njuguna Mutonya in one of the local dailies titled “Coast MPs had better be serious”.

I thought the columnist was hit the mark on the nail and was right on the money when noted: “Every beginning of a parliamentary term since the advent of political pluralism in the early 1990s, Coast politicians declare their independence from the rest of the country to make some nice-sounding declarations about how they wish to change the region’s politics and boost its economy. “ There was no need for Mutonya to apologize by saying ‘Forgive my scepticism, but we have heard all this drivel before.’ Many Coast people agree with the columnist that they have heard that drivel before. I say no apologies needed because the columnist who is not even a Coastal native did the lawmakers a favour by telling them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Talking about ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’, for instance, ‘why would the Magongo-Jomvu road, which is lined by some of the largest industrial parks in Mombasa, is impassable almost 20 years since Ramadhan Kajembe first became an MP’ as noted by the columnist. Other issues the columnist raised, is ‘why the fishermen of Faza, Kiwayuu, Pate and Lamu Kisiwani cannot have cold storage facilities’ while the area MP Abu Chiaba was and still remains Fisheries assistant minister. With four full Cabinet ministers and seven assistant ministers the region has never had such political achievement in terms of Cabinet appointments.

The region’s backbenchers need to work with their colleagues who are in the cabinet to deliver for the region. I would boldly remind them that ‘while successive MPs keep complaining about what the rest of the country owes Coast province, their colleagues from other areas tackle local issues.’

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Commentary & Analysis
http://www.kenyatimesonline.com/content.asp?catid=5&articleId=933
Updated on: Sunday, June 08, 2008
Story by: OMAR ALI