Jubilee’s Beatrice Gambo, and Fred Matiang’i and Kadu Asili’s Mudzo Nzili in Mombasa on Monday / BRIAN OTIENO
Jubilee’s Beatrice Gambo, and Fred Matiang’I, and Kadu Asili’s Mudzo Nzili in Mombasa on Monday / BRIAN OTIENOJubilee party leader Fred Matiang’i has taken his unity message to the Coast, calling on opposition parties to work together.
Speaking during his maiden Coast tour as party leader, the former Interior CS said Jubilee remained committed to building a united opposition.
The party is in advanced talks with Coast-based Kadu Asili on a possible collaboration, with indications an agreement could be reached.
Matiang’i said his relationship with Kadu Asili leader Mudzo Nzili, whom he worked with during his time as Education CS and Nzili’s tenure as Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) national chairman, had helped build trust between the two sides.
“Nzili and I have worked together before. I know we had moments of active fellowship, as the case would be, when you are on different sides of the issue, but I’m grateful to God that even from those experiences, we still developed friendship, respect for one another, and one another’s responsibility that has now brought us where we are,” Matiang’i said.
He spoke after a meeting between the Jubilee and Kadu Asili national executive councils.
Matiang’i said the parties would focus on Kenya’s future, national stability and development, with the proposed agreement giving special attention to the Coast.
The Kadu Asili side has proposed a Coast Region Integrated Development Plan for 2027-37, which Matiang’i welcomed as evidence that the partnership would go beyond electoral politics.
“I am happy that they don’t want us to have a partnership based on mere politics. They want us to have a partnership based on active specific plans and wishes that they have for the region and for the people of Coast. We associate ourselves with this,” he said.
Matiang’i’s visit came two days after President William Ruto concluded his Coast tour, during which the government highlighted projects including title deeds, roads, electricity connections and the proposed Dangote refinery in Lamu.
He sought to remind residents of Jubilee’s record in the region when the party was in power under former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“We should be grateful to President Kenyatta and the team in Jubilee. A lot of phenomenal things were done here in Coast when Jubilee was in power,” Matiang’i said.
He said Jubilee had unfinished business in the region, particularly the blue economy, which he said had stalled since Uhuru left office.
According to Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra), the blue economy contributes 2.5 per cent of Kenya’s GDP and supports about two million jobs across fisheries, tourism, trade and hospitality.
The marine and coastal value chain is estimated to be worth more than $4.4 billion (about Sh572 billion).
Matiang’i said Jubilee and Kadu Asili would work across the Coast region to ensure coastal communities benefit more from those resources.
He also renewed his call for opposition parties to unite, saying Kenyans wanted a single presidential candidate to face Ruto.
“There has never been a time when the country needs unity more than now. We need to be united, all of us,” he said.
Jubilee deputy party leader in charge of strategy Beatrice Gambo said the agreement with Kadu Asili, alongside partnerships with other like-minded parties such as PNU, was part of a broader national effort.
Nzili said political collaboration was necessary and insisted the proposed agreement would not mean Kadu Asili being absorbed by Jubilee.
“It is a partnership for prosperity and posterity,” he said.
He said Kadu Asili had considered the presidential candidates before deciding to support Matiang’i’s bid.
“We have looked at all the presidential candidates so far and saw that Matiang’i is behaving in a manner likely to suggest that he is the best,” Nzili said.
