MRC leader probed over police officers’ attacks

By LINAH BENYAWA

A senior leader of the separatist Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) was yesterday arrested and grilled by officers over recent attacks on police stations.

More than ten security men were killed during the invasion.

His interrogation began on Tuesday but police insist he is not under arrest and there was no indication he would be charged for any crimes.

The man was set free after being questioned for hours at the provincial Criminal Investigation Department office in Mombasa.

This comes three days after he and a section of MRC leaders accused ‘some branches’ of the outlawed group of working with State agents to recruit 1,000 rebels to propagate chaos in Coast Province.

MRC Secretary General Hamza Randu Nzai received a call from a CID officer who told him to report to the headquarters for questioning over the wave of insecurity sweeping across the province in the last two months.

Yesterday, Randu, who is facing criminal charges and is free on bond, disclosed to The Standard that the unnamed investigation officer wanted to interrogate him on Monday evening, but they agreed to meet yesterday. “On Monday evening I was called by one CID officer who asked me to present myself to the provincial CID offices but we rescheduled it to Tuesday afternoon since I had some pending work to do. I was informed that police wanted information related to the spate of attacks on officers and if MRC had any hand in the attacks,” explained Randu.

Coast PCIO Ambrose Munyasia said Randu was grilled over insecurity in the region.

Mr Munyasia revealed that his office was conducting a new investigation and expected to expand its probe on Randu.