Police say MRC planned attacks on voting day

By Linah Benyawa

Mombasa, Kenya: Investigators are pursuing new leads pointing to an MRC meeting at a mosque a week before an attack on Election Day that left 10 policemen dead.

The Standard confirmed yesterday that police have questioned Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) secretary general Hamza Randu about the alleged meeting at a Kwale mosque to plan attacks on police officers in the wee hours of March 4.

According to senior CID officers who did not wish to be named, the objective of the March 27 meeting was to disrupt the General Election in Mombasa and Kilifi counties.

The MRC, which has been campaigning for the secession of the coastal strip from Kenya, was previously involved in an attack on Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission officials who were conducting a mock election in Malindi.

Numerous other attacks, some fatal, have been blamed on the group. CID sources confirmed that they had questioned Randu last week on the events that led to the attacks.

Among the dead were a divisional police commander (OCPD) and the local police station commander.

Randu confirmed he had been questioned but denied knowledge of the meeting. “The CID officers were insisting that they were aware about a meeting held on February 27 by the MRC leadership and other members to plan on the attacks on police officers as part of our intentions to disrupt the March 4 elections but I told them I was not aware of the said meeting.”

“They also claimed that the names and signatures of those suspects arrested following the attacks were similar to the list of MRC members they have,” he added.

Randu also said that the officers also asked him about the financiers of the outlawed group.

When The Standard contacted the Provincial Criminal Investigations Officer (PCIO) Ambrose Munyasia yesterday, he said he could not disclose the results of Randu’s investigation.

“All I will say is that we quizzed Randu over the MRC activities but we cannot disclose exactly what we asked him. The information is very confidential, said Munyasia. Randu remains free as no fresh charges were filed against him.

His grilling started 24 hours after The Standard published a statement in which he was making new claims against the government. He acknowledged a split within the separatist movement but also claimed that government agents had recruited 1,000 youths from “some of our branches” to train them (in order to) sow terror in forests”.

This statement was significant for several reasons including the fact that a key MRC leader was acknowledging ideological and tactical splits within the movement and that Randu was the only notable MRC leader to sign it.

This statement also appeared to acknowledge Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency and to downplay the secessionist agenda leading to questions of Randu’s real motives.