Members of the Mombasa Republican Council outside the High Court in Mombasa.
The leaders pledged to pursue the agenda of “the rights of Coast people according to the 1963 agreement between the British Colony, the Kenyan government and the Sultan of Zanzibar” through constitutional, peaceful and lawful means.
Members of a controversial group in Coast want to meet the President over what they termed as injustices and oppression meted out on locals in the past.
In a press statement signed by eight top officials of the Mombasa Republican Council, which was distributed to media houses in Mombasa on Sunday, the group asked President Kenyatta to honour his promise of meeting its members, which he made during a visit in the region.
“A delegation of Kaya elders led by former Cabinet minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere met the President and asked for a meeting with the MRC to which he agreed. We want the Head of State not to ignore this promise and meet us as soon as possible,” read the statement.
“We want to meet the President and tell him of the injustices and ills done to the coastal people since the world was created,” the statement continued.
The MRC also called on the judiciary to fix the hearing date of its appeal against the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which the group took to court after disputing the new boundaries of the Coast.
In the first ruling, the court’s verdict was that MRC had no jurisdiction to question IEBC over the matter leading to the appeal step.
“We have had hope and trust on the Kenyan judiciary to fix a date for our appeal but we have been frustrated severally,” said the statement.
The statement presented and signed by assistant spokesman Richard Lewa Mwadena, assistant secretary Mwadadu wa Mwamtewe, Mr Killian Chireri Munga and Pastor William Mzungu, also had Mr Randu Nzai Ruwa, Mr Malembi Mwatsahu Munga, Mr Omar Faraj “Suchmore” and Mr Mwero wa Dukwe’s signatures.
The group claimed that after frustrations in courts at the Coast, it moved to the Nairobi Court of Appeal, but it too, had failed to fix the hearing date, giving various reasons for the failure.
VIOLENCE PROPAGANDA
MRC warned politicians and people who spread propaganda that the group was a violent outfit, and denied being part to the violence at the Coast before and during the March 4 General Election.
“We have not touched anybody with our fingers, we abhor and will not allow bloodshed at the Coast and we promise to expose anyone bent on committing such Atrocities,” they said.
The group condemned statements by unnamed people who allegedly spread propaganda that the Coast was hostile, unfriendly and inhabitable to people from other parts of the country, which they heaped on the MRC, terming them unfounded, baseless and unnecessary.
(MRC) is a separatist organisation based at the coastal town of Mombasa which is about 500 kilometeres from Nairobi the capital city of Kenya.The group claims that Mombasa and the coastal area are not part of Kenya and therefore should secede. It has both Christian and Muslim supporters.
The Mombasa Republican Council was formed in 1999 to address perceived political and economic discrimination against the people of the coast province. The group traces its secession claims to the 1895 and 1963 agreements transferring the ten-mile strip of land along the coast to the Government of Kenya from Zanzibar. Some critics characterize these British agreements as a form of bribery designed to facilitate colonization of the interior. The group contests these agreements as invalid, because they were enacted without the consent of coastal stakeholders, and says the state of Kenya has failed to honor the provisions designed to protect the coastal population.
The Mombasa Republican Council was dormant until 2008, when it first raised claims that Mombasa should secede from Kenya to become an independent state. They argued that secession would liberate the people of the coast province from marginalization by the successive governments in Kenya. The slogan they are using is Pwani Si Kenya "The Coast is not Kenya"). In response, the government declared the group to be an illegal organization, together with another 33 groups.
Mombasa Republican Council contested the government's decision in the court. The high court of Mombasa lifted the ban and ruled that claiming the group was illegal was unconstitutional.
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