By Muthui Kariuki
Sometime back, a cartoonist powerfully captured in a series of caricatures the convoluted story of the Mungiki sect.
In the cartoon, Mungiki is depicted as a monster that had innocent and harmless beginnings, so much so that a man (representing politicians) fell in love and took it in as a pet.
But with time, the nice pet grew both in size and appetite. Its previously smooth features also became uglier by the day. Then it ate up the man’s chicken, which was not a big deal at all. Pets can sometimes be allowed such luxuries.
The man only realised his big mistake when his child became next on the now overgrown pet’s menu.
Done with the child, the monster went for him. Fast Forward: another seemingly innocent creature has been adopted in Kenya called Mombasa Republican Council (MRC).
It may be an election year and the politicians must be careful lest they step on toes, good or bad. But the silence that has greeted the worrying activities of this organisation is disturbing. What was that Motion some politicians have promised to take to parliament?
To discuss in our august House people who have already committed high treason by declaring that a section of this country is not a part of Kenya? The activities and pronouncements of MRC have clearly proved it is not your regular neighbourhood welfare chama. It has all the makings of a monster that will end up eating the chicken, the children and the foolish master.
Recently, the group was accused of disrupting the mock elections in Malindi. Worse, they are alleged to have beaten up a policeman and stolen his gun. If the Malindi exercise was a dress rehearsal for the general election, the MRC’s disruption was a foretaste of what it intends to serve up in the next elections. One of the group’s objectives is to prevent elections from taking place in the Coast region as part of its wider scheme to secede.
Biafran proportions
Its slogan “Pwani si Kenya” is telling. It is also beginning to catch among some residents of the Coast region. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is worried that if something is not done soon, holding proper elections in the region may be difficult.
At best, it will be a chaotic exercise full of fear and irregularities. At worse, the exercise may fail completely. Nothing will boost MRC’s ego than failed elections. I am tempted to ask, could some clever politician have come up with this scheme as a way of rigging elections long before we go to the polls?
For one, it will be prove enough that MRC has the requisite muscle to pull off its dream project — seceding from Kenya or rigging its preferred candidate into State House. For two, the Government will come off looking weak and vulnerable, terribly lacking the might to hold on to its territory. It will be a disaster of no mean proportions. The best way to prevent such a disaster is to nip the MRC monster in the bud.
For starters, its agenda is the stuff of high treason. No nation — not even the most liberal democracies — sits pretty as some idlers and never-do-wells make threats to break away and actually put in motion activities that show that it is not engaging in idle talk. Yet Kenya may actually be facing a disaster of Biafran proportions. What lessons have we learnt from the Mali tragedy?
The Nigeria Civil War that lasted between 1967 and 1970 had its beginnings in as MRC-like grievances – ethnic, economic, cultural and religious differences.
Apart from the retail measures such as declaring the MRC a proscribed organisation and arresting some of its members, what is Government doing about it? Well-meaning coastal residents have a point when they argue that the region has largely had a raw deal from Nairobi since Independence.
But so are the residents of Northern Kenya and many of Kenya’s minority ethnic and other interest groups.
But secession is hardly the way to solve such historical problems. Allowing MRC to continue spreading the secession message could open a floodgate of similar actions. Like the wildcat industrial strikes that we have been experiencing in recent months, we may soon see groups popping up all over our borders, demanding territorial autonomy.
The writers of the new constitution rightly recognised that Nairobi has not been fair to all, which is why we now have a devolved system of Government to take care of our needs at the local level.
Furthermore, there is now a fund in the Constitution meant to redress such historical wrongs. But even the widely praised freedoms provided by the new law do not give people the right to dream up such dangerous projects like secession.
The MRC is, therefore, violating the Constitution. The political class and security apparatus must wake up from the elections-induced trance and face up to the real and huge threat to Kenya’s territorial integrity. Let’s not sacrifice this birthright at the alter of political expedience. Pwani is Kenya and nobody can say otherwise. The writer is a journalist and comments on social Issues.
