President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to meet with county leaders from the Coast region on Monday, November 19, for official opening of Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani (JKP) Agribusiness and Blue Economy Investment Conference in Mombasa. It shall be the first time Uhuru is going to meet with the six governors from the region since he was elected during the hotly contested 2017 elections.
Speaking to members of the press on Friday, November 16, Mombasa Agriculture Executive Hassan Mwamtoa said all the governors had confirmed they would attend the conference.
“We expect President Uhuru Kenyatta to officially open the conference and all six governors of the Coast will be in attendance,” said Mwamtoa.
Other leaders expected in the conference are the senators, MPs, MCAs, the business community, investors and donors. The county chiefs who will welcome Uhuru to the coast are Hassan Joho of Mombasa, Amason Kingi (Kilifi), Salim Mvurya (Kwale), Granton Samboja (Taita Taveta) Dhado Godana of Tana River and Lamu’s Fahim Twaha.
The coast region has two governors who were elected on the Jubilee party ticket and the other four were elected under the National Super Alliance coalition.
The meeting will come barely days after Governor Joho, a bitter critique of Jubilee government, accompanied Uhuru to France to mark 100 years since the end of Second World War.
For a better part of 2017, Uhuru and Joho shared bitter bile and they would launch a heated onslaught against each other. On Monday, March 13, 2017, their differences were put to the fore when the Mombasa County boss was blocked from attending a public forum presided over by Uhuru in the devolved unit. During his speeches, the head of State asked Joho to keep off, focus on his work and stop following him.