Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho addressing NASA supporters at Uhuru Park. [Photo: Hassan Joho/ facebook.com]
Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has reiterated Coast leaders will resist the proposed relocation of the Mombasa dry port to Naivasha.Joho said the move has ulterior motives and would not stand and watch the Coast region’s goldmine relocated.He told President Uhuru Kenyatta to suspend the establishment of the proposed dry port in Naivasha saying the investment will negatively affect the economy of Mombasa County.According to the county chief, his hard stand in rejecting Uhuru’s proposal to whip Mombasa residents to support the Jubilee administration ignited proposals to establish a parallel dry port in Naivasha.This, he said was aimed at plunging Coast region into an unemployment crisis by denying residents primarily youth job opportunities.“They want to control all sectors of the economy and continue keeping us poor so that whenever we want help we go begging from them,” Joho said on Thursday in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park.He said the proposed facility in Nakuru County will lead to the transfer of key services to Naivasha leading to massive job cuts in Mombasa.“We will not cease from opposing any move aimed at taking away port services from Mombasa to Naivasha. My war with the two (Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto) is not personal but because I defer with them ideologically,” he added.He said there was no need to create a dry port yet there is already a sea port in Mombasa.Late 2016, Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua told Joho off over his resistance to the establishment of the Naivasha port facility.Mbugua said the county government has already secured land for the investment and told Joho to keep off the affairs of Nakuru County.Joho said the Jubilee administration’s decision to build a parallel port facility in Naivasha aims at punishing Coast residents for supporting the opposition.