Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and locals in Malindi have protested and vowed to bar the debate surrounding the possibility of a Malindi by-election, saying it could kill the economy of the area.
Led by Kenya National Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) Malindi Director Fuad Kombe, the residents said that ODM, through its Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna was plotting to kill the business sector in the Sub-county.
According to the KNCCI director, elections and by-elections have had businesses in the town crippled.
He said Malindi SMEs have been recuperating from the three elections that were conducted in five years since 2013 in the sub-county (the 2013 general elections, 2016 Malindi by-election, and the 2017 general elections).
“We have been struggling in the market till we had the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga. As we are now picking up, Sifuna and his friends re-emerge again calling for a by-election. We cannot tolerate such politics in Malindi because we feel the impact more than ODM,” said Kombe on Tuesday.
Kombe added that ODM has been using the coast region, especially Malindi, as a political litmus paper for the party without caring about the locals.
Kombe added, “the truth is that Malindi SMEs are now afraid that their struggling business is going to totally die again once the by-election debate will be made into a reality. We are not happy with ODM’s aim to bring Malindi economy to its knees?”
They asked the party leader Raila Odinga to sit down with the Kilifi County Governor Amason Kingi to work out the political temperatures surrounding the sub-county to restore peace and cool down the by-election tension.
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