Muturi to revive Blue Economy along Kenya’s coastline if elected

Democratic Party presidential contender Justin Muturi says if elected he would revive the blue economy along the Kenyan coastline and strive to make the region the country’s breadbasket.

Muturi, who is the Speaker of the National Assembly, said the region that has over 200 kilometres of coastline has remained neglected by subsequent governments since independence, making it dependent on relief food perennially.

Said Muturi: “It is a shame that our coastline abounds in productive crops like coconut palms, yet we have to import raw material for production of cooking oil.”

Muturi said everything should be done to revamp the Coast agricultural sector that once produced sugar, bixa, varied fruits and coconuts.

Muturi made the remarks at Ukunda town, Kwale County where he held a townhall meeting with local grassroots political leaders.

The Speaker repeated remarks head made on Thursday evening in a live interview with Pwani FM, where he said Kenya must develop local agriculture to help stop dependece imported raw material.

“All our cooking oil manufacturing companies have to import raw materials like palm oil from Malaysia.

He called on government operatives not to engage in businesses of cartels that he noted had taken prices of agricultural inputs like fertiliser out of reach of the ordinary farmer.

If elected president, Muturi said, he would put such cartels out of business in order to rescue farmers from their grip.

“Have you ever wondered how fertiliser passes through the Mombasa port here all the way to Uganda, but in Kenya it ends up costing three times more than in the neighbouring countries,” Muturi said.

He said to he would many regions in the country to convince Kenyans why he is best suited to hold the top seat.