PRESS STATEMENT BY UKAMBANI ELECTED LEADERS ON PRESIDENT KENYATTA’S VISIT TO THE REGION THIS WEEKEND
We, the elected leaders from Ukambani, have learnt that President Uhuru Kenyatta is visiting our region this weekend.
While we have no issues with such a visit since the President is welcome to visit any part of Kenya, we take great exception to the fact that the region’s key leaders, and particularly the leader of the dominant political party, H.E. Hon. Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, has been kept in the dark about the visit. Furthermore, no official invitation has been extended to Hon. Musyoka and other prominent leaders from Ukambani.
As a result, we have advised Hon. Musyoka to keep off the presidential tour. Hon. Musyoka, being the most prominent leader who enjoys massive support from the people of Ukambani, cannot be party to a trip that sidelines him to the periphery of the region’s affairs. Some of our Governors, senior county leaders and officials, have also been kept in the dark about the President’s itinerary.
We see the trip as a campaign tour intended to hunt for votes for Jubilee while camouflaged as a “development” visit. It is an extension of the 2017 General Election campaign which will, unfortunately, not win Jubilee any significant support from the area.
We have also been reliably informed that some of the so-called “development projects” that the President is going to launch had been earlier launched by Hon. Musyoka when he was Vice-President in the Grand Coalition Government. For instance, the project to tarmack the Kibwezi-Mutomo-Kitui-Mwingi-Kandwia Road was launched by Hon. Musyoka in March 2011. The project was sponsored by the Chinese government to the tune of US$ 500 Million (Kshs.50 billion) and work was expected to commence few months after the launch. However, when Jubilee came to power, they diverted the funds meant for the road to other uses.
We take cognizance of the fact that Jubilee is now coming to correct the mistakes it committed by diverting funds meant for such an important project, as well as many others, just in time for the 2017 elections!
Jubilee has also delayed the implementation of Phase 2 of the Kiambere-Mwingi Water Supply Project. Works, entailing the implementation of a sanitation project in Mwingi town and a water project in Kyuso town, were supposed to commence in 2012.
Again, the Jubilee Administration put on hold this vital project, only to now start using it as a campaign tool while seeking for votes from the region.
It is also quite amusing that among the projects the President is set to launch is a technical institute in Nuu, only a month after his deputy William Ruto “launched” the same project!
Concerning the Tseikuru Technical Institute, we want to make it clear that the Phase 1 of this project was completed under the Grand Coalition Government, from a Kshs.90 million loan from the African Development Bank. The institute is set to be a technical university in the future.
In short, there will be nothing new the Jubilee Administration will be bringing to Ukambani. They will only be on a campaign mission that will not win them any votes in 2017.
We urge our supporters not to be hoodwinked that Jubilee is bringing them “development”. Indeed, under the current Constitution, development is not a favour; it is a right. Therefore, our people and our region deserve to be developed without having any strings attached. Voting for Jubilee should not be a pre-condition for our region to benefit from the national coffers.
Ends.
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