By Shadrack Nyakoe
Former Gender CS Aisha Jumwa’s declaration of Mining and Blue Economy Hassan Joho as the Coast region’s undisputed leader has further alienated her from most Kilifi leaders, who gave her Sunday thanks giving ceremony a wide berth.
Jumwa was appointed the non-executive chairperson of the Kenya Roads Board by President William Ruto on January 17.
This came after more than six months in the cold following her dismissal from her cabinet position last June at the height of the Gen Z protests.
On Sunday, she organized a thanks giving rally where she invited Joho as the chief guest.
This made most Kilifi MPs mad saying she disrespected them and their leader former Kilifi Governor and current Senate Speaker Amason Kingi.
Jumwa, who unsuccessfully vied for the Kilifi governor position in 2022, losing out to ODM’s Gideon Mung’aro, has created bad blood between herself and Kilifi MPs, especially Owen Baya, the Kilifi North MP.
Baya, once a staunch supporter of the former Malindi MP, has turned into her greatest critic.
In a sarcastic statement on his social media handles, Kilifi North MP Owen Baya on Monday dismissed Jumwa’s event as comical, with no significance.
Baya posted the cover page of the book “Hekaya za Abunuwasi”, a collection of short stories about the anecdotes of Abu Nawas, an Arab poet who lived in Baghdad, Iraq during the reign of Harun Al Rashid, saying the author should be compensated.
Abunuwasi is a comical character with funny anecdotes that make him the laughing stock of the village.
“The author of this book is asking for his royalties for re-launching his book and using it as a political manual at Msabaha yesterday, without his permission,” Baya posted.
It was a thinly veiled attack on Jumwa.
Baya and Jumwa do not see eye to eye, with Baya vowing to scuttle Jumwa’s attempt to unseat Mung’aro in the 2027 general elections.
Jumwa is said to have secretly teamed up with Joho in a major plan to make Mung’aro a one-term governor.
But observer’s have dismissed this saying Joho and Mung’aro, although become political enemies at one point, kissed and made up, and are now friends.
On Sunday at Msabaha ground in Malindi, only one of the nine MPs from the county attended the function, which was Rabai’s Kenga Mupe.
There were two MPs from Mombasa in Mohamed Machele (Mvita) and Mishi Mboko (Likoni), two from Taita Taveta county including Danson Mwashako (Wundanyi) and Lydia Haika (Taita Taveta woman rep), two from Tana River county including Ali Wario (Garsen) and Danson Mungatana (Tana River senator), Lamu Governor Issa Timamy and Sports CS Salim Mvurya.
Political analyst Franline Nzao said Kilifi leaders are rallying behind Kingi as their leader and any attempt to belittle him will be seen as an attack on the entire Kilifi leadership.
“She declared Joho as the leader of the Coast region by word and actions. This does not augur well with Kilifi leader because even in the Mijikenda norms, a woman cannot make a declaration on behalf of the community no matter the influence she has,” Nzao said.
Nzao said the position she has been given is too small compared to the ministerial one she had, and she should never had organized the event in the first place.
“When she was made CS, she never had a thanks giving ceremony. Now she wants one for that position? It smacks of deliberate move to declare a stand,” Nzao said.
“Did you notice that some of the leaders left shortly after realizing Kingi was not coming,” Nzao posed.
Kilifi leaders, Nzao said, feel Joho cannot be the leader of the Coast region because, according to them, he commands less than 20 per cent of the votes in the region.
Nzao said Joho, being from the Swahili community in Mombasa, leads an almost minority group, while Salim Mvurya from Kwale county leads only two of the nine sub-tribes of the Mijikenda community in the Digo and the Duruma.
Kingi, on the other hand, leads a county that has seven of the nine sub-tribes of the Mijikenda community.
“How can less than 20 per cent be the leader of the 80 per cent?” he posed.
Dzombo Mbaru, another political analyst at the Coast, said Joho lost his credibility when he and his political father Raila Odinga ‘auctioned’ their popularity for positions in government.
“There is no way Mvurya, Mung’aro and Kingi will accept Joho as a Coast kingpin. These people differed with him before and there is no good reason to support him now when the political stakes and too high,” Mbaru opined.
He said the mood in the Coast region has changed as many now consider Joho and Raila as politicians who trade the region’s loyalty for their own personal gain.
“It is indeed true that money plays a big role in political mobilization at the Coast. However, this time intellectual firepower in the control and management of the region’s politics will be unleashed ruthlessly to neutralize the influence and temptations of money all the way to the ballot,” Mbaru said.
He said to many, Joho is now a spent force whose time is over after he is seen to have betrayed the very Gen Z whose support forms his main political base.