Kilifi governor-elect Gideon Mung’aro has assured the Malindi business community of his continued support to realise tourism potential and infrastructure development in the resort town.
Speaking during a meeting with the businessmen at a hotel in Malindi town Mr Mung’aro said his first focus is to strategize on how to revamp the dwindling tourism economy within the area.
The sector has an opportunity to create more than 6,000 potential jobs direct and more than 200,000 jobs indirectly.
Mr Mung’aro said Kilifi is currently dead in terms of economy and it was time for the county government to come up with a rapid initiative in collaboration with the business community to bring back the economy.
” I have no time to waste and immediately I am sworn in on Thursday, I will start this process aimed at quickly changing the economy in his first 100 days of office,” he said.
One of the first initiatives he said was to fast-track the issue of Malindi International Airport expansion which he said the process had taken so long and very slow.
“I will check with the Ministry of Transport with the national government for the status of the compensation process for the squatters living near the airport. I understand that the process was on course but had been slowly implemented. I will push for its completion so that the airport expansion starts immediately,” he said.
The governor-elect said the airport was a big resource to attract and bring back tourism from its lost glory.
He said that his mandate as the governor was to make sure the livelihood of the people of Kilifi was back.
Malindi chairman of business community Ahmed Mohamed lauded the move and said they are ready to work with the new governor for the betterment of lives of the people of Malindi and Kilifi as a whole.
” I think this is the best moment for us to revive Malindi and we are ready to work together and ensure the region restores its lost glory,” said Mohamed.
He added that Malindi was one of the best tourist destinations in the world but due to its several challenges had seen itself losing grip on the international market.
“We are asking our governor-elect to make sure that he immediately follows up on the issue of the airport so as to have big flights land directly from Europe,” he said.
