The Coast Development Authority (CDA) has called on state corporations, private entities and community groups to embrace the “coastal agenda” and tap into the region’s vast natural resources, as it showcased its flagship development projects at the ASK Show in Mombasa.
Speaking at the CDA stand, Board Chairman Mzee Mwinyi said the authority was pushing a renewed narrative aimed at improving livelihoods across the six coastal counties by harnessing each area’s unique economic strengths.
“As people of the coast, there are certain elements that we need to focus on for us to improve the livelihoods of the coast people,|” said Mzee, noting that Kwale offers opportunities in rice farming, livestock and citrus production, while Mombasa boasts tourism and potential for value-addition factories.
Kilifi, he added, holds promise in animal farming, coral and mineral exploration, Tana River in livestock, and Lamu in the blue economy.
Mwinyi urged state agencies and private firms to incorporate the coastal agenda into their five-year strategic plans, and revealed that CDA’s largest development partner outside the national government is an Italian agency, through which the authority has built schools, an ICU and HDU block in Kilifi County, and is constructing an 11.2-kilometre road.
He singled out aquaculture and mariculture as the “lowest-hanging fruit” for coastal communities, recalling the World Bank-funded Kenya Marine and Fisheries Socio-Economic Development (KEMFSED) programme, which channeled nearly Sh10 billion into the region from 2017.
A new initiative worth Sh32 billion, three times that amount, is set to focus squarely on aquaculture projects, he said, urging community groups to move beyond hiring tents and chairs and instead invest in fisheries ventures to access the funding.
CDA Acting Managing Director Dr. Mwanasiti Bendera said the authority, a state corporation under the Ministry of East Africa, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) and Regional Development, was exhibiting projects on drought mitigation, water security and social development in line with this year’s ASK Show theme.
She cited the Malindi Integrated Social Health Development Programme, under which CDA has built over 24 classrooms and three junior school science laboratories across five schools, supported Ngomeni Secondary School with a 200-student dining hall and a dormitory, and helped establish an eight-bed ICU and HDU with a theatre in Kilifi County.
The authority is also constructing the 12-kilometre Mjanaheri-Ngomeni Road, linking a fishing village, a satellite station and a naval base to wider government services.
Bendera said CDA had partnered with youth and women’s groups, including Generation Kenya, which has trained 30,000 young people in tailoring and other skills, and Riki Bags, a youth-led enterprise turning waste into products.
By Ramadhan Nassib
