Stop wasting time on regional politics, Kilifi North MP tells Kingi
Kilifi North MP Owen Baya (in red) addresses journalists at a past event.
Kilifi North MP Owen Baya has called on Governor Amason Kingi to stop concentrating on Coast regional politics and focus on national issues.
Mr Baya said the people urging Mr Kingi to concentrate on a Coast-based party are dishonest.
Speaking in Kilifi, Mr Baya challenged the governor to work on uniting Kenyans and quit spending time preaching the unity of the Coast region.
“The Coast region is already united, and that is why we were able to have many elected leaders under the ODM party. Governor Kingi should be one of the architects of the Kenyan republic in the next government,” he said.
He said the governor had nothing more to offer the region after bringing its communities together.
“Kingi has a great potential to unite Kenyans, and not the Coast region alone. He is the nearest person to the presidency on the Coast, and if he doesn’t go for that, we will lose as the people of the Coast. We will long for that for the years to come,” he said.
Mr Baya said as a former Cabinet minister, the governor is in a better place to move to the national table.
Mr Baya said he is there to prepare the way for Governor Kingi to be a national leader.
“I am John the Baptist. I am here to prepare the way for governor Kingi to ascend to power in the country,” he said.
He said it was wrong for Mr Kingi to own the Coast-based party, adding that the governor risks losing the way with the outfit.
“You cannot form a party alone. We need to build our party together. It is possible that after forming the party, another person will challenge you with their party,” he said.
He challenged Governor Kingi to bring everybody on board in that quest.
“We need to come together and dig our big well to get enough water,” he said,
He said it was easy for local politicians to drum up support for the party and get the backing of locals but it will be difficult for the region to attain its political and economic agenda.
"These politicians singing about a Coast-based party will be elected at the grassroots, but the region will not be in national politics," he said.
He said he chairs a powerful committee in the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party that will fight for the interests of the people of Kilifi and the Coast region.
“I am preparing the way and a position for Governor Kingi,” he said.
Governor Kingi has formed the Pamoja African Alliance (PAA), which is expected to be launched soon.
