UDA secretary general Hassan Omar at Utange Primary School on August 23, 2026 / BRIAN OTIENO
UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar has drummed up support for President William Ruto’s administration, saying it is the only one that has shown love and care for the Mijikenda and other Coastal communities.
Omar on Saturday said successive regimes in the country’s history have marginalised Coastal communities and the Coastal region at large since independence.
“Today, President William Ruto has been a big saviour in Kenya,” Omar said.
“He has made us who were not recognised before: the Mijikenda community, the Orma community, the Pokomo community, the Taita and Taveta communities, the Bajuni community, and the Swahili and Arabs, who have since 1963 been marginalised, we have a face today.”
Speaking at Utange Primary School in Kisauni Sub-County, the UDA Secretary General said the Kenya Kwanza administration has done more for the Coast region in four years than all the other regimes since 1963.
“The other regimes discriminated against us, marginalised us, and stole our lands. But today, through the UDSA government, we have recovered those lands,” Omar said.
The Ruto administration has issued over 380,000 title deeds in the Coast region since August 2022.
During his latest tour of the region, he issued over 33,000 titles distributed across the six counties in the Coast at a major drive held at the Mama Ngina Waterfront Park in Mombasa.
Omar said that under previous regimes, there was systematic marginalisation of the Coast region so that they could take advantage of the resultant poverty to manipulate Coastal people.
“They ensured they put us in a constant state of lack of education. Instead of calling us fishermen, they called us lazy. They said we were people who waited for the coconut to fall instead of us climbing the coconut tree for the fruits.
“They denied us roads, energy, water, education and all manner of things that would have made us respectable. This made us remain fools and illiterate...But now they are going to see our foolishness in the way we are going to save ourselves (at the ballot),” Omar said.
The UDA Secretary General said that since the Coast region, which has majorly been an ODM zone, has now decided to work with the ruling government, the opposition is trying to divide Coastal people.
He noted that the opposition is trying every trick in the book to divide the ODM-UDA partnership because they know that the partnership is strong enough to deliver President Ruto his second term in office.
He said most Coastal people were born into humble families, unlike others who were born in opulence.
“When you hear us speak good English, don’t think we were born in Nyali or Lavington. We were born on the streets and worked hard,” Omar said.
He said they are now back in the streets trying to empower fellow hustlers who were born in humble beginnings, and this is enraging some people.
“We, the Coastal communities, have the trait of being courageous. The Mekatilili wa Menzas, The Ronald Ngalas, the Jembe Mwakalus, the Joe Hamisis, and the Karisa Maithas, all who started the liberation journey, and we will now complete that journey,” Omar said.
He called on Coastal residents to register as voters in large numbers, saying it is their numbers that will ensure the region continues to be looked at by the government in power.
Omar has also allayed fears that he will not be on the ballot in 2027 due to the push by ODM for zoning.
“Let me tell you openly, in 2027, we will be in the race and on the ballot so that we change the back-and-forth policies that have made Mombasa be the way it is now,” Omar stated.
INSTANT ANALYSIS
The marginalisation of the Coast region involves deep-seated historical, economic, and political grievances, including severe landlessness, low representation in public employment, and a disconnect from national resource allocation, despite the region hosting major economic pillars like the Mombasa and Lamu ports and the vital tourism hubs.
