Written By Ramadhan Kambi 📝
Natural resources found within the Coast region should be used to develop the region other than it used to exploit the local community.
With this being a long time worry for the community, leaders now want the government to ensure locals get handsome returns from their natural resources and cash crops.
The leaders in Ganze, Kilifi County that the region itself has been given a raw deal after tonnes of ballast and stones were excavated and used to build three berths at the Lamu port at Sh40 billion.
Jaribuni in Kilifi County is home to hundreds of mining activities but the region has remained poor for so many years.
Ganze parliamentary aspirant engineer Kenneth Kazungu alias Tungule and Jaribuni ward MCA Maitha Masha argued that locals in Jaribuni did not get compensation for the materials that built Lamu port and are languishing in poverty.
Rich And Broke
The two leaders addressed a political rally at Bamba trading centre in Ganze sub county.
Mr Tungule who quit as Kilifi county chief officer for Transport and Infrastructure said the area was rich in building materials and Manganese but locals have nothing to show because no financial package was negotiated to compensate the local community.
“Jaribuni has the quarries that produced the materials shipped to Lamu to build the new port. It also has quarries for Manganese but the residents have nothing to show for it. They have been left to grapple with the dust menace. Turkana county negotiated for five percent revenue from oil and this should apply to Kilifi,” Tungule argued.
He said he was in the Pamoja African Party (PAA) so as to push for the revival of coconut and cashew nut farming and processing in the Coast region.
“We want government intervention for cashewnut and coconut crops like those for coffee, tea and sugar so as to revive the Coast economy,” he said.
He vowed to uplift education standards and encourage investors such those in the export processing zone (EPZ) to create employment for locals in an area considered to be one of the poorest in the Coast region.
“Ganze’s economy is also based on livestock but we do not have even a single slaughterhouse. We should have such a facility to raise the value of livestock to our farmers,” he said.
40 Percent Share
At the same time,Masha noted he has sponsored a private member’s Bill at the Kilifi county Assembly to push for a 40 percent share of revenue from quarries in the county to be reserved for communities within the quarrying zones.
The MCA explained that the Kilifi County Quarrying Control Bill, 2021, which has gone through public participation after its first reading, aims to push quarrying firms to deposit money for restoration of the environment and have specific roads for trucks going to the quarries to reduce the dust menace.
He said quarrying should be controlled to save the riparian land and other areas that could destroy the environment.
He argued that locals have suffered health complications because of dust from the quarries and lorries ferrying materials from the sites.
“We are worried that the springs at Kaya Kauma on the banks of Nzovuni river in Jaribuni ward are drying up because of uncontrolled quarrying. The springs feed the main Mdachi irrigation project and hence quarrying activities threaten food security if not controlled,” he argued.
The MCA noted that the Mining Act does not effectively control quarrying and accord benefits to communities and that was why MCAs in Kilifi were fast-tracking the quarrying legislation.
Mr Tungule has joined governor Amason Kingi’s political outfit in his quest to oust Ganze MP and Kilifi county ODM chairman Teddy Mwambire.
Governor Kingi has complicated the politics of Kilifi and parts of Coast after he registered PAA on October 18, 2021 reportedly to foster a Coast region agenda that includes land reforms and revival of the main cash crops.
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