Storm brewing over Senator Omar's claim about Mombasa governor's residence

A storm is brewing in Mombasa after the county’s Senator Hassan Omar claimed on Monday that the county government planned to build a Sh390 million official governor’s residence.

On Tuesday, supporters of Governor Ali Hassan Joho portrayed him as a victim of the national government, which they said had denied the county boss offices at Uhuru na Kazi building.

Mr Mohamed Hatimy, the chairman of the County Assembly’s finance committee, claimed that Mr Joho had resorted to using his private offices at Prima building in Kizingo for official duties.

He said the national government declined to surrender the ninth floor of the administration building in 2013 to the County Assembly for official use by the governor.

Mr Hatimy and about 10 other MCAs dismissed claims by Mr Omar, who is eyeing the governor’s seat, as “untrue and propaganda”.

Contacted, Finance Executive Hazel Koitaba said Governor Joho conducts his official duties from the private building in addition to living in his private residence.

On Monday, a partial snapshot of a document seen by the Nation has a row that shows a figure of Sh390,533,405 against “refurbishment of residential buildings (creditors)”. A second row features the same figure for “purchase of buildings”.

The executive could not immediately give our reporter the amount of funds which were allocated for refurbishing the building to be used as the governor’s office. She promised to call back with the figure but as we went to press she had not.

The county government, she added, does not spend a cent on the private governor’s office or his residence. However, she did not indicate who foots the bills for the offices.

Ms Koitaba also dismissed as untrue Senator Omar’s claims that the county had proposed Sh390 million for construction of the governor’s residence.

“Since 2013, the county government has been prioritising its budgets on development projects rather than on recurrent expenditure,” she said.

Before 2013, Uhuru na Kazi used to be the headquarters of the defunct Coast Province. Today, it houses Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa, County Commissioner Evans Achoki and other national government offices. The mayor’s parlour at the County Assembly buildings is now occupied by the County Assembly Speaker.

At the news conference, Mr Hatimy said the building under renovation would be used as an administrative office for the governor. But he did not indicate the cost of the renovations.