Joho only spends on luxuries: Omar

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar claimed on Monday that the county has set aside Sh390 million to build a residence for Governor Hassan Joho in Nyali.

Speaking at a forum to review the county budgets, Mr Omar criticised Mr Joho, accusing him of spending public funds “in luxuries and parading foreign musicians and street food festivals at the expense of poor Mombasa residents”.

The senator was delivering an address during the multisectoral caucus on finance at Sarova Whitesands, organised by his office.

"In the budget proposal I saw ‘Purchase of Residential,"' he said.

“According to the Constitution, it is only the governor’s residency that can be built and the Mombasa Governor does not have official residence," he added.

“You don’t live in Sh300 million houses at the beaches facing the sea yet the people of Mombasa are poor people in a poor county. If majority of them live below poverty line, then as a leader, you should live nearer them."

However, his allegations were immediately dismissed as false by the county’s Finance executive Hazel Koitaba, her Education and Environment counterpart Tendai Mtana Lewa and county director of communication Richard Chacha.

“Where is the budget? Where is the house? Ask him to show you the house,” Mr Chacha said in his response.

But Mr Omar dismissed the reactions by the officials as “a rehearsed defence by a county not ready to learn”.

He said that the Mombasa budget was not responsive to the people’s needs.

“The county has made it expensive for small traders to do business. If you touch mama mboga, then you touch struggling people,” said Mr Omar, who is eyeing the governor’s seat.