The Principal Secretary (PS) for Transport, Mohamed Daghar, has said the government is committed to fulfilling all its development agenda as espoused by President William Ruto, citing billions of shillings invested in housing, roads, healthcare, and youth empowerment programmes across the country.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ forum attended by elders, youth leaders, and local dignitaries in Mombasa, Daghar said the government’s affordable housing programme alone had delivered 12,906 units in Mombasa County out of 287,000 built nationwide, at a cost of Sh39.44 billion.
“I know what a billion means. One transport project alone, the Dongo Kundu bypass, cost Sh52 billion. That is why wherever you go in Kenya, today, it feels like the whole country is a construction site,” Daghar said.
He listed other ongoing works in the county, including 420 modern market stalls, 3,000 student hostels, and 400 police housing units, as well as the reconstruction of key roads and flyovers linking Mikindani, Changamwe, Kalua, Doshi, and the Southern Bypass through the Mteza Bridge.
On healthcare, the PS said the Social Health Authority (SHA) had registered 32.2 million Kenyans out of a national population of about 50 million, with Sh178.8 billion already disbursed through the scheme since its roll-out.
Daghar also highlighted the NYOTA youth empowerment programme, under which young people have received grants of up to Sh50,000, alongside an On-the-Job Training (OJT) initiative to certify artisans, including mechanics, drivers, and fishermen who have practical skills but lack formal papers.
He further cited plans to extend the Standard Gauge Railway to Malaba, expand JKIA, raise national power generation to 10,000 megawatts, construct 1,250 dams for irrigation, and re-open Mombasa’s Old Port, which has remained closed over a tax dispute between an importer and the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Daghar urged residents to register as voters and support President William Ruto’s re-election bid in 2027, calling for continued peace in the Coast region.
“Let us make sure we have registered to vote. This is a very big issue. We must send a statement that the coastal belt can vote for good leadership. Let us also show that we can achieve peace, because here in Mombasa and the entire coastal belt, we are people who know peace; we do not know war,” he said.
Fatma Bakari Barayan, the non-executive chairperson of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) Board, used the same forum to declare her bid for the Mombasa County Woman Representative seat.
Barayan said the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) had pooled contributions from low- and high-income earners alike to subsidize care for vulnerable Kenyans, noting that Youth Fund beneficiaries of the NYOTA grants were being supported to graduate into larger enterprise loans.
She also pointed to youth placed in jobs in Dubai through labour mobility programmes as evidence of the initiative’s impact.
However, she raised concern over the management of a Sh46 million Gender-Based Violence (GBV) center in the county and alleged discrimination in bursary allocation at the Woman Representative’s office, calling for fairness and accountability in public resource distribution.
“Let us not politicise this; where fairness and equity are needed, they must be applied. Our children should not be locked out of school because of discrimination in bursary allocation,” Barayan said, appealing to elders to help mobilise the youth around development-based leadership rather than personality politics.
By Ramadhan Nassib
