Mombasa-based trade unions and civil society leaders have criticised the county government for announcing projects and programmes outside the established planning process, insisting that development priorities must be incorporated into the Annual Development Plan (ADP).
The leaders, operating under the Mombasa Accountability Committee, called for transparent budget allocations, equitable distribution of resources, completion of stalled projects, improved public service delivery and meaningful consideration of residents’ recommendations in the final county budget.
Speaking at Tononoka Hall during a public participation meeting on the 2027/2028 ADP, Coast Civil Society Network for Human Rights Chairman Zedekiah Adika said county governments must listen to residents and respond to their development needs.
“That is the principle under Article 174: that you have counties that listen to people and that the projects that are generated locally are built for the progressive nature of our counties. We want to call upon members of the county assembly. We are not yet in an election, and you will earn a salary until Election Day. You are still at work,” Adika said.
He added, “We have seen a trend where the political leadership in Mombasa is engaging in roadside declarations. We want to call upon the leadership of Mombasa County to stop roadside declarations. That is why we come here to pass projects into ADP.”
The county government recently announced free healthcare services throughout October in honour of the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Union leaders criticised the move, saying the county executive had bypassed the County Assembly.
Adika, who chairs the Accountability Committee, said the Controller of Budget’s report for the 2024/2025 financial year showed that Mombasa’s own-source revenue had declined from Sh4.4 billion to Sh3.8 billion.
He attributed the drop to decisions made without following due process and urged the county executive to observe the law in all matters involving public funds.
“If you want to call upon health facilities to provide services for free, you need to ask the people of Mombasa in the first place. The law provides that you can go back to the Assembly so that certain supplementary budgets are passed. It cannot be that people can now just wake up and say this one and this one is not going to happen,” Adika said.
Adika also expressed concern about the low turnout at ADP public participation meetings, saying more residents should attend to present local development priorities and press the county government to implement agreed projects.
Kenya University Staff Union (KUSU) Technical University of Mombasa branch chairman Kassim Ziro said the city was struggling with poorly managed waste. He called for the reintroduction of roll-off dumpsters to improve waste collection.
“We are proposing that at least there is an allocation of those containers for garbage collection. We also saw in the budget that there is a communal bio-digester allocated for Sh250 million. This is also not specific about where it will be installed or how many,” Ziro said.
Ziro also proposed increasing the Sh20 million allocation for purchasing honey-sucker trucks, saying the six sub-counties needed trucks to improve service delivery.
Kenyan National Union of Nurses and Midwives Coast Region Chairman Peter Maroko called on the county government to conduct a health workforce assessment to compare staffing levels with applicable national standards.
“We also recommend that they prioritise the recruitment and equitable deployment of qualified doctors, nurses and other professionals,” Maroko said.
He urged the county government to address staffing shortages, citing Utange Level 4 Hospital, which he said was popular with residents but needed an additional 20 to 40 nurses.
“In most cases, we have seen the county government of Mombasa employing nurses and other health workers on contracts that are really not attractive. In the process, they are unable to retain these nurses at the facilities. At the end of the day, you will find the turnover of staff working in these facilities is so high,” he said.
Old Town MCA Abdirahman Hussein praised civil society leaders and residents for attending the meeting and said their views would be considered in the final ADP. He also said the 2027/2028 Finance Bill did not propose an increase in taxes.
“The residents of Mombasa will pay the same charges and levies that they were paying in the last financial year,” Hussein said, adding that MCAs would continue to perform their oversight role despite the election year.
By Sadik Hassan
