Joho Accuses President Uhuru of Morgaging Mombasa Port as Guarantee for SGR Loan from China

Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho has accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of planning to ‘kill’ the city of Mombasa by mortgaging the Mombasa as a guarantee for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project loan.

While acknowledging the new SGR project, the governor said that President Kenyatta's administration had inflated the cost of the project making it expensive and forcing Kenyans into more debts was the big issue.

"That a modern railway was due in Kenya is not the question. The problem is that the obscene inflation of the price under Jubilee has made it too expensive for Kenya. "To cater for this cost, the Jubilee administration has had to provide a number of guarantees to ensure the realization of this project. Key amongst the guarantees is that they have mortgaged the economic future of Mombasa. The port of Mombasa. Our birthright," Joho stated.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) deputy party leader further accused the Jubilee administration of abandoning the people of Mombasa by causing them pain.

"It has now become a bitter pill to swallow. Especially for the coast people. When the Jubilee regime came to power, their ascension became our misery. The best of their time is now the worst of ours. Their "spring of hope" has become our 'winter of despair'," Joho lamented.

"We would like the people of Kenya to know, we are a city at risk. Not only have they concessioned away the port of Mombasa in secret, the SGR will kill the city. Like the children of the biblical Isaac, one of us has sold his brother's birthright," he stated.

Joho’s accusations comes just a day after police blocked him from attending the launch of the new Standard Gauge Railway by President Uhuru Kenyatta in Mombasa’s Miritini area.