Mombasa governor Hassan Joho has lashed out at Nyali MP Mohammed Ali over his questions about the allocated of the control of a state cargo terminal in Nairobi, to a family linked to Joho's family.
Ali has claimed that the county boss and his family are solely gaining from the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), while container freighters at the Port of Mombasa are being locked out in favour of the train.
He says that while people are staring at jobs losses at the port amid plans by the government to have all containers moved to Nairobi by rail, Joho and his family are directly benefiting.
But in response, joho told off the MP, suggesting that he is misinformed about the issue, urging Coast leaders to unite in favour of area residents instead of backstabbing each other.
“Most of us are where we are because of sacrifice; hence we are calling on our haters to come and work with us for the benefit of locals,” he said on Thursday, during the opening of the Mombasa International Show.
This came shortly after the MP called upon the investigative bodies to investigate the deal.
Joho also stressed on the need for the state bodies manning the port to remove bottlenecks making it hard for business people to operate.
He argued that this way, it will be justifiable to demand taxes from them, further calling upon them to engage locals before implementing policies so that both sides can benefit.
“We are asking Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS) to reduce business bottlenecks and threats at the Port of Mombasa to make it easy for people to do business,” he added.