Senate Speaker Amason Kingi has condemned plans by the opposition Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance to hold anti-government rallies across the country.
Kingi said the country was facing myriads of problems that needed consultative efforts to resolve and that holding demonstrations and protest rallies was not an option.
He told the opposition leaders to rally their families to be at the forefront of the planned protests instead of using children of innocent Kenyans to advance their (politicians’) selfish agenda.
The Speaker said this in his home village of Kamale in Adu ward, Magarini constituency, where he launched the construction of two classrooms at the A. J Kingi Mixed Secondary School, a school built by the community and named after him.
He said he had received Sh4.2 million from his former classmates at the Alliance High School to implement the project.
Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro said his administration would also donate Sh1 million for the project.
Azimio leaders have announced that they would hold country-wide consultative rallies to protest at various issues they feel the government was not doing correctly, starting with a rally at Nairobi’s Kamkunji Grounds and a parallel Jamhuri Day rally at Jacaranda grounds on December 12, 2022.
However, the Senate Speaker urged the opposition to sit down with the government and propose ways of solving problems facing the country, including famine and an ailing economy, instead of calling for mass action.
“Kenyans are facing famine and other problems. Leaders need to sit and discuss on how best to solve the problems, but others are telling us to sit and discuss how many demonstrations to hold in a week,” he said.
He said those calling for demonstrations have taken children to expensive schools in and outside the country and were calling for demonstrations so that children of the poor are shot or teargassed.
“If they want to hold demonstrations, let them bring their wives and children so that we can truly know that they want to lead the demonstrations,” he said.
He asked Mung’aro, who was elected on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party ticket, to work with the national government for accelerated development to reach his people instead of leading residents to the planned protest rallies.
“My brother, do not be cheated by anybody,” Kingi counseled Mung’aro adding, “Have the interests of your people. If the national government will help you bring development, cooperate with it because this county’s residents do not know anybody else but you for now.”
Kingi could have been talking from experience since during his first term as Kilifi Governor, he was a fierce critic of the Uhuru-Ruto administration, opposing development projects that had been earmarked by the then administration for the county.
Modern medical equipment including a CT Scan machine and renal units earmarked for the Malindi Sub County Hospital had to be re-routed to another county when Kingi opposed the Managed Medical Scheme programme and to date, the county does not have such equipment.
On the nagging land question in the Coast region, Kingi said President William Ruto would start buying land occupied by squatters and settle the landless and promised to work with the governor to ensure that the Adu/Kamale adjudication project is completed.
The project that was initiated by his administration in conjunction with the Ministry of Lands was halted when the Agricultural Development Corporation claimed the land, on which the ancestral home of the Senate Speaker lies.
Governor Mung’aro said his administration was in talks with the national government with a view to ensuring that the dispute with the ADC is resolved so that the adjudication process in Adu/Kamale adjudication section could resume.
“The President has said that he will buy land belonging to private individuals. If he will do that to settle squatters, will he be defeated to settle our people on the ADC land which belongs to the government?” he posed.
Adu Member of County Assembly Samson Zia asked the ADC to stop making cutlines on the disputed land and consult with local leaders on the best way forward.
