MRC leaders go into hiding after police launch operation

By Tobias Chanji and Willis Oketch

Leaders of Mombasa Republican Council, accused of being behind a wave of violence at the Coast, were forced to go underground after police launched raids against them.

This was after police vowed to arrest MRC leaders and charge them with incitement or even treason, which is a serious crime.

The raid follows a directive by new Internal Security Minister Katoo ole Metito that security teams should take action against members of the outfit agitating for the coast region to secede from Kenya, under the slogan Pwani Si Kenya (Coast isn’t in Kenya)

Police managed to arrest MRC spokesman Mohamed Rashid Mraja, who turned himself in after dodging arrest earlier in the morning.

Raidswere carried out in Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa leading to the arrest of four junior officials of the group besides Mraja.

“This morning we netted five people including Mr Mraja whose house was raided by our detectives,” Coast police chief Aggrey Adoli said as he announced the unfolding crackdown on MRC members.

The five were all later charged with crimes of incitement to violence either for uttering inflammatory and separatist speeches or possessing separatist literature.

On Monday, Mraja’s larger than life image on television was severely tested when detectives raided his one-roomed house exposing a not sophisticated dwelling place for a man who has stolen national attention for advocating for a split of Kenya.

Mraja would later, forlornly, record a statement with the police, subdued and less vocal than usual, as detectives carted him away to face incitement charges.

Last evening he was still in police cells as his friends and relatives strove to raise the Sh2million bond slapped on him by court.

The crackdown comes after cases of violence linked to the MRC increased along with rising fears within security circles that the movement would plan to disrupt school examinations as well as voting next March.

Police believe MRC militants were behind last Thursday’s attack on Fisheries minister Amason Kingi’s rally in Mtwapa in which the minister’s bodyguard Harrison Maitha Mweni was killed as he defended him.

Last week the Internal Security Minister warned MRC activity will be stopped and accused the separatist outfit of plotting to disrupt voting and national examinations in Coast province.

The operation comes at a time the public mood seems to be turning against MRC and its agenda of secession.

Enraged members of the public have lynched 18 MRC members over the last three weeks in Kwale, Kaloleni and Mtwapa.

MRC is strong in Muslim-dominated parts of Kwale County where top leadership of the group including Mraja and its ‘president’ Omar Mwamnwadzi live but also has widespread support in impoverished sections of Kilifi County and Kisauni in Mombasa.

On Monday Adoli warned the crackdown against the separatists would target politicians and businessmen believed to be financing militia activity in Coast province.

Excite disobedience

In Mombasa, Ali Mbwana Mwateba and Ali Juma Hamisi Mwajambe were arrested on Sunday in Likoni and charged with the crimes of possessing literature bearing the words ‘Pwani Si Kenya’ which police allege are calculated to excite disobedience of the law in Coast Province.

In Kwale, Jadi Saidi Mwachaunga, was seized at his home at Mwamambi near Diani and charged with the same crime for possessing a pamphlet reading ‘Pwani Si Kenya’.

Randu’s cell phone number was switched off Monday while Mwamnwadzi’s whereabouts were still unknown although he lives in Ng’ombeni. The MRC ‘president’ has been in hiding for several years but came out recently when court lifted a ban on the group.

The new onslaught by the police presents more challenges for the group, which had to wage a legal battle to lift the ban.

Detectives and Intelligence officers however indicate that after the lifting of the ban MRC has stepped up its separatist campaign and also allege its hands have been bloodied by the recent killings in the Tana Delta where at least 127 people were killed in ethnic violence.

Prosecutors now say MRC leaders have been promoting rebellion and disobedience against Kenyan laws and also foster a climate of hate and violence through speeches and literature for which they must be brought to account.

As the full extent of the crackdown continued to unravel Adoli declared that besides incitement and hate crime charges, separatist leaders might soon face treason charges for advocating secession.

Adoli said police are targeting “those people who have been giving hate speeches in public and publishing pamphlets that amounts to hate speech”.

“When a person says ‘Pwani Si Kenya’ that is hate speech and should be treated very seriously,” he added.

The PPO indicated government will no longer tolerate MRC’s speeches and arguments regarding alleged past agreements it has used to call for independence of Coast region.

“This is Kenya for us all. It is not for a section of people or individuals. Be warned that those chanting secessionist slogans are “putting themselves in danger,” he went on.

The PPO spoke after the MRC spokesman had turned himself in.

Mraja’s house in Majengo slums in Mombasa was raided at about 5am, according to his wife Rahma Ismail, who was briefly detained at Makupa Police Station.

Apparently he escaped arrest because the detectives first went to the wrong address arriving it his house after he had left for prayers at Mema Mosque in Majengo.

Mraja himself declared on Monday: “Police came to my house and took away several things from my house including my cell-phone as well as my wife.”

Later in the day he surrendered to police accompanied by officials of Muslims for Human Rights agency and was charged with the crime of incitement to violence.

Raid houses

Speaking to The Standard on phone from her home in Mombasa, Mraja’s wife said police officers who raided their house asked her whether she was a member of MRC and she said no. “They asked me if I am an MRC member or if I have ever supported the group but I told them I don’t believe in MRC and they left me. Before coming to my house they had also raided my neighbour’s home as they were not sure of our house,” she said.

MRC Secretary General Hamza Randu had told The Standard from an unknown venue that he did not know the motive of the police raid.

Kwale County Commissioner Evans Achoki said the government will not relent in its quest to have peace in the region and those engaging in hate speech will be dealt.

Achoki said Metito will be visiting Kwale on Thursday this week and security will top his agenda.