Kilifi, KENYA: A feud is looming between Italian billionaire Flavio Briatore and Kilifi North Member of Parliament Owen Baya over the tycoon’s sentiments that he is planning to quit Malindi market due to untidiness.
Recently, Briatore reportedly said that Kilifi leaders are lousy and that Malindi had degenerated into a shabby and smelly town that discouraged tourists from visiting it as their preferred destination.
Speaking in Kilifi Town over the weekend, Baya said that Briatore has become a liability in the County and adds no value to the Kilifi economy.
He reckoned that he has hired almost 80 percent of the workforce from his home country, Italy.
“Briatore can go away even today! If he thinks that’s the way to solve the garbage menace in Malindi,” Baya said.
“He has done nothing in terms of community services. All he has done is to bring cooks and other staff from Italy, what has he done to salvage the situation of the town being dirty. The other issue is that he has been doing nothing in terms of marketing and that’s why our youths have not been getting any jobs there,” he added.
He went ahead to say he would even spit on his face if he saw him as he has been using his closeness with President Uhuru Kenyatta as a shield to say anything.
He said the leaders of Kilifi County would not even at once tolerate his behavior.
“For sure we (Kilifi County leaders) will not at once tolerate such a nonsense at all,” Baya said.
“It’s better he quits the market and we bring another investor who is willing to cooperate with us. There is a time he called me and we met, but when I asked him how he is contributing to CSR activities in Maindi he instead asked for a contract to clean the city, then for what is he there?”
This comes as the tourism sector is still unstable in the County and the Coastal strip as a whole.
