By Patrick Beja and Willis Oketch

Prime Minister Raila Odinga is now supporting talks with the separatist Mombasa Republican Council (MRC).

The PM told the huge crowd in Mombasa that he supports talks and accused the United Democratic Forum Party (UDF) and some of its leaders of opposing dialogue with the separatist group when he (Raila) suggested such talks two months ago.

“They claimed I was trying to initiate dialogue with an outlawed group,” said the PM.

“They (MRC) are our people, our youth and brothers. We shall sit down with them to discuss,” Raila said.

Last month, the PM said the Government will not talk to MRC until the group renounces violence and its separatist slogans.

Msambweni MP Omar Zonga claimed UDF presidential aspirant Musalia Mudavadi had turned down a request by members of the MRC to have dialogue when he came to Coast Province as an ODM presidential aspirant.

“MRC had sought the intervention of Mr Mudavadi when he went round the country to talk to ODM delegates but he dismissed them as an outlawed group. Why is he now seeking to have a select committee to look into the MRC issues?”

dismissed group

Zonga claimed United Republican Party’s William Ruto also opposed the PM when he first called for talks.

The PM opposed MRC’s call for an election boycott in Coast Province saying staying away from the polls will be counterproductive because “it will retain power in the hands of traitors.”

Raila told cheering supporters at Likoni in Mombasa that Kenya’s political, economic and social problems can be traced to “the conspiracies of the Kenyatta regime”, which he accused of inheriting an unfair colonial system including land problems at the Coast and refusing to reconstruct the country due to personal and group greed.

traitors

Other leaders led by Assistant minister Ali Hassan Joho claimed the Kenyatta family owned huge tracks of land in the Coast and Central Provinces adding that such a class of people cannot solve Kenya’s problems.

He asked Kenyatta to surrender the big chunks of land owned by his family before seeking to be elected president.

“His family should explain and justify why they acquired large chunks of land while many Kenyans are squatters,” said the Kisauni MP.

According to Raila, the colonialists handed  independence to “traitors” instead of “liberators” leading to a system of “colonialism of the black man against another black man.”

Raila launched a scathing attack against his opponents in the G-7 alliance describing them as “moulting snakes” and “hyena’s in sheepskins” in the fold of the Kenyatta regime, being staged to stall the “final liberation of Kenya”.

Raila and his new rival Mudavadi were at the Coast over the weekend to flex political muscle and foster support for their parties.

On Saturday, Mudavadi announced that his new party would sponsor a motion to appoint a select committee of Parliament to meet MRC leaders and discuss their grievances. This  forced Raila to take up the matter of the separatist group on Sunday.

Raila accused UDF of double-standards saying its leaders were suspect converts to the liberation ideology and had grabbed the MRC issue to slight him.

He claimed that ideologically he was closer to MRC than Mudavadi and G-7 because the MRC arose from what he described as betrayal of the independence dream, which he has campaigned against.

Raila said although he has opposed MRC’s separatist slogan-Pwani Si Kenya (Coast is independent from Kenya) he now believes the slogans are an extreme way of pointing out genuine historical issues including marginalisation and land injustices.

 “This youth called the Mombasa Republican Council are talking Raila’s language, the language of liberation. They have seen oppression by the traitors who took over independence and imposed a rule of quislings,” said he.

According to Raila, the MRC is highlighting issues such as devolution, landlessness and unemployment, which he said ODM and its leaders have also raised in the cause of the ‘second liberation’.

suspect converts

“We are on the side of those who fought for the second liberation,” he said and added that the new Constitution provides a framework to address the region’s problems through legal means and negotiations.

Raila said he will organise a congress of local leaders to discuss land and other problems at the Coast. He  claimed UDF and its leaders cannot claim sympathy with MRC as they are  “the same people” who railed against him when he called for talks with MRC two months ago.

The PM directed foreign shipping lines using the port of Mombasa to spare jobs for local residents.

“As Prime Minister, I direct shipping lines to leave the small jobs to the locals instead of doing everything themselves,” he said.

He was supported by Wundanyi MP Thomas Mwadeghu who said the Maritime Bill was passed by Parliament but has not been implemented because the Transport minister was allegedly hiding it.

He appealed to the PM to direct the minister to gazette the Bill and operationise it.

Raila was accompanied by an estimated 75 MPs. They included ministers Fred Gumo, James Orengo, Paul Otuoma, Musa Sirma, Amason Kingi, Dan Mwazo, Dalmas Otieno; assistant ministers Hassan Joho, Ramadhan Kajembe, Magereri Lagat, Margaret Wanjiru  and Mason Nyamweya.

MPs present were Masoud Mwahima, Omar Zonga, Millie Odhiambo, Abu Namwamba, John Mbadi, Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim, among others.

 Zonga urged MPs to lobby and ensure that the proposed National Land Commission is headed by someone from the Coast who understands the squatter and land issues.

A Kiambu politican Mr Moses Mwiraria  said the land problems facing Coast residents were also common in Central Kenya.