MP wants Uhuru to revoke gazette notice employeeing governor, wife
Kwale Woman Representative Zuleikha Hassan on Wednesday asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to quash a gazette notice that appointed Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya and his wife Christine Mvurya as members of the community development agreement committee between Msambweni constituency and Base Titanium Limited.
Ms Hassan also wants Msambweni MP Suleiman Dori and his LungaLunga counterpart Khatib Mwashetani de-gazetted and excluded from the list.
Addressing a press conference at Parliament Buildings on Wednesday, she argued the inclusion of politicians would not serve the public interest and called for the formation of a new team constituting members of the community.
“The politicians should not be part of the team that will manage the funds from the royalties paid to the community because they have a share from national government sent to counties and constituency development fund,” she said.
She added: “There is no need of having the governor, his wife and MPs running this fund which is meant for the community.”
The Kwale woman rep also claimed that members of the community were left out and lamented that proper elections were not conducted to select the members of the committee, contrary to mining regulations.
“Our plea, as residents of Kwale, we were not consulted as such we want the President to quash the gazette notice and allow the community to choose its leaders,” he noted.
According to her, there was no public participation, at least not that parliament is aware of,”
On Friday, the Mining and petroleum Cabinet Secretary John Munyes gazetted in the Mining (Community Development Agreement regulations, 2017) and appointed the governor, his wife, the two MPs and others members to serve in the community development agreement committee between Lunga Lunga Lunga sub county community in Kwale community and Mrima Bwiti resettlement scheme and Base Titanium Limited.
Under law, the mining firms will spend at least one per cent of sales revenues every year to uplift communities affected by their operations as the State deepens efforts to open up the sector’s activities to the public.
The mineral cash will get to community members through scholarships, educational facilities, health centres, roads, water or energy projects.
Miners could also opt to support SMEs, assist with agricultural product marketing, finance environment protection projects or support cultural heritage and sports.
The choice of a project will be determined by a Community Development Agreement Committee whose membership include the Governor, area MCA, national government representative, a representative of village elders and one person representing women.
