Coast leaders back title deeds plan for region

Coast MPs Thursday backed the initiative by President Uhuru Kenyatta to issue title deeds to the landless in the region. 

At the same time, the Coast Parliamentary Group (CPG) gave a list of demands it wants the national government to address.

These include improving agricultural production, provision of clean water and infrastructure.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting at Leisure Lodge Beach Resort at Diani, Kwale County, CPG chairman Gideon Mung’aro said the MPs had resolved to work together to spur development in the region.

“Land ownership has been the biggest problem in Coast for decades. We as CPG have resolved to support President Kenyatta’s initiative to issue squatters with title deeds. We shall work closely with the government to solve this problem,” he said.

Mr Mung’aro said the leaders had resolved to “leave politics behind” and pursue the agenda of development.

“We have decided to put politics behind us after the elections and resolved to work with the government for the good of our people because they elected us to serve their interests,” he said.

He said CPG would focus on land as “we don’t want to have a long wish-list at the same time as before”.

Without title deeds, the MP said, Coast residents would not be able to achieve meaningful growth “for any development is pegged on land”.

He said they would marshal support for programmes geared towards improving the living standards of residents in all the region’s six counties.

“We shall also work towards harmony, unity and peace in Coast,” he said.

Unlike a previous meeting at Pangoni Beach Hotel in Mombasa two weeks which only 13 of the 33 CPG members attended, Thursday’s talks attracted 26 legislators.

Mr Mung’aro said area leaders had also agreed to use the CPG as their mouthpiece.

The MPs, according to him, had ironed out their differences but they had agreed to provide democratic space “if any member raises an issue”.