A game of musical chairs is about to be witnessed in the Mvita parliamentary seat which has been thrown wide open by area MP Abdulswamad Nassir’s decision to vie for Mombasa governor’s seat.
Mvita constituency has for long been the heartbeat of Coast politics. During the single party Kanu era, Abdulswamad’s father, the late Sharrif Nassir, placed Mvita on the map as focal point coastal politics.
Shariff Nassir, was a Kanu stalwart and President Daniel Moi’s close confidant.
A recent opinion poll by Infotrak has Nassir at 48 percent of the votes, ahead of his five close contestants in his Mvita backayard, the MP is also the leading candidate for governor, with support from 62 per cent of his constituents.
This means his support is crucial to the eight contestants, where a battle to replace him is raging.
They include the latest entrant, Samata Mohamed Issa Samata, a lawyer and businessman who is vying on a Kanu ticket and hopes to reactivate the Kanu support base to clinch the seat. Samata is battling former Mombasa mayor Rajab Sumba’s son Hassan Sumba, businessman Omar Shalo of United Democratic Alliance, Kanu board member Mohamed Samata and political activist Mohamed ‘Tenge’ Salim. Others are Mombasa businessman Mohammed Soud Machele, Said Twaha and Ali Mwatsahu.
Machele recently refuted claims he has dropped out of the contest. The businessman also denied claims he is a project, saying he is his own man. “I have never gone to any tycoon, businessman or politician for their financial support. I have struggled on my own and with the help of God,” Machele said.
Located in the heart of Mombasa County, Mvita is the second most populous constituency in the coastal county with 107,091 registered voters, according to IEBC’s 2017 voter register. The area was devastated by the Covid-19 crisis which grounded transport and tourism business across the country from early 20120. Land documentation has remained a thorny issue here, just like in most of the Coast region. Mvita being one of the perceived ODM strongholds, pundits believe that anyone on the ticket is deemed to already have set one foot in Parliament. The Infotrak poll released on Sunday indicates about 50 per cent of Mvita residents say they were concerned about disputes between transporters and the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) network, which resulted in massive unemployment in Mvita after road transport and warehouses workers lost their jobs, forcing restaurants and guest houses to close.
“As the biggest employer in Mvita constituency for the last 15 years, I believe and understand the challenges especially in youth unemployment and am well placed to solve this problem,’’ noted Samata who says he wants the national security machinery to follow through on acts of violence and incitement to ensure a democratic fair election. “If one citizen is killed then it’s not worth the election after all,” he adds.
