Lunga Lunga MP Khatib Mwashetani has said one of the legislators from the Coast is being used by the government to push the privatisation plan of the second container terminal at the Mombasa port .
“One of our own is being used to coerce us to accept this thing (privatisation plan). We cannot accept it,” Mwashetani said on Saturday.
He spoke during a meeting with dock workers at the Mombasa Women Hall. Nine MPs attended the meeting.
The government has introduced in Parliament proposals to amend the Merchant Shipping Act to allow Transport CS to decide who runs the CT2, the code name for the second container terminal at the port.
The government wants the CT2 to be run by the KNSL but MPs and other stakeholders oppose the move, saying KNSL has been making losses for the last 20 years and that it would be illogical to give it a terminal to run.
Mwashetani’s sentiments came after Lamu Woman representative Ruweida Obo denied there were plans to privatise the terminal. Obo who was the first MP to speak criticised dock workers for accusing the state without giving facts.
“I’m a pilot by profession but my husband works at the port. So, when you talk about the port, I know more about the workers’ problems,” Obo said.
“But I want you to give us facts so that we can have concrete issues for us to argue with. Not verbal back and forth like you are doing right now. You are lying to yourselves here. This is politics.”
Likoni MP Mishi Mboko asked Obo to look into the privatisation matter more keenly. “This privatisation issue is not being done openly. It is being done systematically so that people do not notice,” Mboko said.
“If we put our heads down, we might say there’s nothing like that. But we must open our eyes and ears. If it is not yet done, there are plans to do it. That is the truth,” Mboko said.
She said some leaders were pretending not to know what was going on.
Such big ventures, she noted, need to undergo public participation, which is yet to be conducted.