Conditions set for the reopening of four mosques shut by the State last week have set Mombasa leaders and the national government on a collision path.
The Government says Musa, Sakina, Swafaa and Minaa mosques, which police stormed on Monday and Wednesday last week, will only be reopened for public worship after the formation of committees that will manage them and appointment of imams.
The former committees were dissolved or became moribund after radical youths expelled moderate imams. Local Muslim and political leaders demanded that the former committees be reinstated instead of new ones being formed.
Haki Africa sponsored a meeting between the State and Mombasa leaders but the latter had held a separate meeting to discuss the matter and the Mandera massacre.
Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho said local leaders resolved that the old committees be reinstated but Mombasa County Deputy Commissioner Salim Mahmoud said the Government will not allow the mosques to operate without new committees in place.
"As the Government we did not close down the mosque, the mosques are not operational because they lack committees to run them," said Salim who argued that the old committees could not be allowed to operate because "they wrote to us and said they had resigned and therefore you cannot reinstate them".
But yesterday Mombasa leaders, who converged at the Castle Royal hotel, said they had resolved that the old committees should run the affairs of the mosques as the county finds ways to bring the aggrieved parties together.
Mombasa Senator Omar Hassan accused the State of shutting the mosques unconstitutionally. Joho said as leaders they will preside over the reintroduction of committees to run the shut mosques after a consultative meeting they were to hold yesterday evening.
"We will create a committee to have Musa mosque open because we have agreed on how we are going to form a committee to run it," said Joho.
Nyali MP Awiti Bolo in a separate press conference asked the Government to open the mosques unconditionally because the closure was against the freedom of worship.
The meeting was attended by local leaders, including MPs Abdulswamad Nassir (Mvita), Badi Twalib (Jomvu), Rashid Bezimba (Kisauni) and Mombasa Woman Representative Mishi Mboko. Senator Omar said there was a bill to create metropolitan police to help address insecurity in various counties.
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