Nelson Marwa: Jubilee’s top dog that can’t just stop barking

Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa makes a point during press conference at Police headquarters in Mombasa on 14th January 2017. [Photo:Omondi Onyango/Standard]

He is different things to different people, depending on who you ask. He is a bully. A reincarnation of a past long gone, a provincial commissioner per excellence, his critics say. To others, he is a true definition of what a regional commissioner should be.

Whatever the case, Kenya’s most vocal county/regional commissioner Nelson Marwa was in his element last week when he initiated his latest altercation with Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.

Marwa’s high profile bouts with Joho are legendary. There is no love lost between them. Joho has derided Marwa as “a small man” doing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s errands. Marwa has swiftly hit back, trying to link the vocal governor to crime.

In the latest bust-up, Marwa has not disappointed. Last Saturday, he accused Joho of storming the Mombasa police headquarters to free Ibrahim Aharub Kharti, a friend of the governor arrested with high drama a day earlier by Flying Squad officers for unspecified crimes.

That evening, Joho’s office released a statement alleging he was being held at the station against his will after he went to seek information on Kharti’s arrest.

After a seven-hour stand off, Joho emerged from the station. An enraged Marwa frantically called journalists to “correct” what he considered to be Joho’s propaganda to no avail. The next day, he turned on the journalists, accusing them of being the governor’s stooges and spreading his propaganda. He accused them of unpatriotic conduct and corruption. Yet Marwa’s office has also not escaped claims of bribing journalists who crowd his press conferences.

On Saturday, Marwa described Kharti, a wealthy businessman, as “a potential drug baron... who owns four guns” and suggested that Joho was his enabler in crime.

Meanwhile, Marwa had also launched a tirade on Nahid Mousa, the director of Inspectorate at the Mombasa County Government, suggesting that his gun shop was leasing guns to militia.

The commissioner, who has generated praise and condemnation in equal measure at the Coast, where he has worked for most of his adult life in the provincial administration, has not spoken for days since the weekend events. His conduct, however, remains a matter of public debate.

His conduct this month mirrors his attitude in March 2016 following Jubilee’s defeat in the Malindi by-election where he had, literally, camped. Then, some activists accused him of ordering the arrest of opposition officials.

But in his charesteristic self,  Marwa, who publicly campaigned for President Kenyatta, decalared: “I will not be silenced by anyone”.

He sensationally claimed in Kwale in April that year that policemen attached to Joho, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi and Kilifi MP Aisha Jumwa unleashed violence during the Malindi by-election, where several Jubilee MPs were chased away over election bribery claims.

“...are they gods? Why must Joho, Kingi and Aisha and their goons break the law with impunity,” he thundered.

Vintage Marwa then placed more people in his cross-hairs, accusing them of not punishing the said police officers: “The Inspector General of Police should have come immediately to Malindi to deal with the problem because (police) officers are embarrassing the government.”

Boinnet did not respond to Marwa’s challenge as most civil servants who earn the commissioner’s wrath are wont to. The few who have dared answer him have either lost the battle or ended with egg on the face.

Many critics who accuse Marwa of living in a by-gone area where DCs and PCs wielded power over life and death also acknowledge that the commissioner has support from top quotas of the government. Most of the actions he has promised or threatened come to pass. No sooner had he promised “fire” after the Malindi violence than Joho’s and Kingi’s security was withdrawn.

Shoot-to-kill

In October 2015, Marwa picked a public spat with Transport PS John Mosonik. He was pricked to the quick when Mosonik defended former Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) Managing Director Hassan Musa over a spate of ferry accidents across the Likoni Channel.

But Mosonik turned the heat on Marwa, accusing him of intimidating other civil servants and poking his nose where he was not needed. Marwa fired back swiftly, accusing the PS of trying to harass and intimidate him and protecting an incompetent officer. “I am not taking that lightly,” he declared. Within days, Hassan Musa was replaced.

Perhaps, Marwa’s most notable notoriety came on March 26, 2014 when he declared that all terror suspects would be shot on sight, earning the wrath of rights activists who accused him of promoting extra-judicial killings. His rationale was that courts were not able to convict terrorists and he state was unable to get witnesses to try terror suspects.

He issued the shoot to kill orders in the wake of the March 23, 2014 massacre of worshipers at a church in Likoni, high profile murders of moderate imams and takeover of mosques by radical muslims.

Given to delivering long rambling and often winding speeches, Marwa suffers no illusion of where his powers and influence lie. He has adopted the old provincial commissioner’s policy of herding together departmental heads into a long pep talk after which he emerges to address the press on all manner of issues, from politics to illegal gangs.

Most civil servants, including senior police officers, watch in silence, petrified at his petulant language and stream of orders. Most lament in silence to journalists, accusing Marwa of bullying and interference.

At times, some senior police officers take him head on with mixed luck. Early last year, Marwa commanded some Administration Police officers to raid a yard in Changamwe he claimed was aiding corrupt trade, only to confront another group of policemen guarding the facility.

A senior police officer said they were never briefed of the mission, leading to a near pontential clash between the forces.

Said an officer in Kwale: “He is trying to wield imaginary powers.”

Others who dared take him head on ended up being transferred. On March 12, 2015 a quarrel erupted between Marwa and then Mombasa police commandant Robert Kitur over police conduct amidst rising insecurity. Marwa invited Kitur’s wrath when he said: “Police stations in Mombasa have been turned into ATMs.”

Kitur did not take this lying down. He accused Marwa of trying to demoralise officers and interfering with police affairs. “Let him tell us facts instead of peddling rumours,” said Kitur.

Marwa answered back, saying high level corruption took place in police stations and accused officers of misconduct, saying they were poorly led or supervised.

Before long, Kitur was transferred. Ironically, his transfer came on the same day Marwa was promoted to Coast regional coordinator.

Yet Kitur and Hassan, the former KFS boss, are only two of many that have tried to take on Marwa and failed. In mid August last year, Mombasa County Commissioner Maalim Mohamed was transferred to Kisumu, hardly three months after reporting from Bungoma.

Although he described his removal as “a normal transfer”, Maalim’s move had been a matter of speculation for weeks due to alleged bad blood between him and Marwa. In early August, Marwa issued a statement ordering Maalim to combat crime “instead of talking big”. Earlier, in mid July, he had appeared to chide Maalim when he alleged that “crime was zero” when he was county commissioner, suggesting that Maalim was incompetent.

Following this public criticism, communication between the two broke down completely. The two were never to be seen together again, often addressing separate press conferences and giving conflicting reports on similar matters.

The conflict between the two men “with big egos that craved media attention” was inevitable — Marwa had found himself with undefined powers when he was promoted. Sources said matters were made worse by the fact that both were in the same job group, even though Marwa was the regional coordinator. Whereas Marwa felt he was better placed as a long time administrator in Mombasa, Maalim suffered no illusions about his own abilities having served as DC in Mombasa before.

A muslim, Maalim was also believed to command respect among locals and had intimate knowledge of radical groups, a credential that, ironically, seems to have annoyed key people in the civil service.

There is no evidence to suggest Marwa ordered Maalim’s transfer. But Maalim, who was also non-compromising on security issues, lost the battle against a cartel of civil servants who were unhappy with his political reconciliation with local politicians and successes in security and economic sectors.

With Maalim’s departure, Marwa has outlived most if not all top senior security officials he found or arrived with at the Coast.

‘Protocol officer’

Following Marwa’s elevation, Evans Achoki from Kwale replaced him for a brief period. Achoki was replaced in May by Maalim. Reasons for these changes were not clear. Achoki was, allegedly, forced out for trying to mend ties between the national government and local elected leaders.

Other reports say Achoki, who was transferred back to Mombasa following Maalim’s removal, fell out of favour for daring to host press conferences without Marwa’s authority.

But Marwa denies he is responsible for these transfers. “Those are malicious reports and I do not want to be associated with them,” he told The Standard on Sunday mid last year.

When he was elevated to regional coordinator, his allies considered it a “hard earned reward” for his crusade against terrorism and political hooliganism. But his opponents felt he had finally been moved to a post that lacked clout. “The sun is finally setting on this old style DC who lives in the past”, a senior civil servant told The Standard on Sunday, arguing that as regional coordinator, Marwa was now a “mere national government protocol officer”.

How mistaken were these critics for Marwa took to his new post like a fish to water?