By DANN MWANGI

In the recent past, the outlawed Mombasa Republic Council (MRC) has been making secessionists demands that are not founded on law, facts and history. Inasmuch as they have been invoking a frivolous and outdated colonial agreement that the Coast Province no longer belongs to Kenya, this is not true.

They continue to abuse our territorial integrity and national sovereignty and this must not be tolerated by the Government. In furtherance of their illegal quest to secede, they have committed grave crimes like disrupting the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission mock elections in Malindi, raided some police stations in Mombasa and generally committed acts that border on public incitement and total disregard of law.

They have also created pandemonium at the Coast by stating that they will not allow General Elections to be conducted there.

It is in this background that the Government, which is vested with the constitutional and administrative powers of protecting our national sovereignty and providing security, must have a coherent approach to logically finish this problem.

The Government should not have sound-bite solutions to this problem or leave the politicians to purport that they have the solution to this problem. MRC may have legitimate issues that they want addressed but they must understand that the solution to these problems cannot be addressed through unreasonable secessionist demands. They must be addressed through the existing legal framework not lawlessness.

They should allow the Government, which is legitimate in office, to handle their problems. This is because the current supremacy war amongst the political class and specifically between the ODM and UDF leaders on who should be first to negotiate with MRC is not anchored on national interests. They have no policies on how to deal with criminal organised gangs. In any case, they do not even care about the welfare of the MRC members but are only competing for votes from MRC and their sympathiSers.

Sungu Sungu

They are pretending they have the solution to this problem and yet historically, politicians have only associated themselves with such groups like the Mungiki, Sungu Sungu, for political expediency but after elections, they denounce such groups.

This eventually makes the groups convert into criminal gangs that terrorise the wananchi by imposing illegal taxes and even killing them.

In this regard, the citizenry must reject all these selfish and sectarian efforts by the politicians to resolve the MRC problems as they will only fuel the illegalities committed by MRC and perpetuate their existence for short-term political gain.

Worst of all, politicians have always been behind such groups that purport to be fronting ideological movements and thus if they are left to interfere with the MRC, they will deny Kenyans the opportunity to know the real financiers and backers of these groups as they cannot expose themselves.

Therefore, the Government must not remain ambiguous about the immense dangers that the MRC group portends.

Although the Government has outlawed the group and stated through the Ministry for Internal Security and the Office of the Prime Minister that they cannot negotiate with the MRC, it must reaffirm its position about the MRC with clarity and confidence.

The recent turnaround by the Prime Minister and one of his deputies that the Government will negotiate with the MRC, though MRC have rejected, creates ambivalence that jeopardises national security. This equally emboldens MRC and creates a false perception that all the youths within the Coastal region belong to the MRC while this is not the case.

Despite a coherent clarification as to whether Government will negotiate with MRC, Government must also make deliberate initiatives to understand the issues raised by this group and where feasible, progressively address their demands if legitimate.

This can only be achieved if the Government involves all the coastal leaders that include the community leaders, religious leaders, provincial administrators and political class in getting grassroots solutions to problems affecting the coastal people and not the MRC alone. However, the Government must not have a half-hearted approach to this problem but rather a fully-fledged approach.

Boko Haram

Meanwhile, the Government should exercise fidelity to the constitution and laws of the land and should not allow the MRC officials or their members to cause security problems or intimidate people at the coast.

Any MRC member who violates the law should be dealt with according to the law.

Equally, any politician who is supporting MRC, a banned group, must also face the law as supporting such groups is illegal. Currently, the Government seems afraid to exercise its authority and powers and this will only give courage to the MRC.

In the long run, MRC will explode and become a terrorist gang just like how the Boko Haram of Nigeria have become after making demands of separation of North from the South.

 

The writer is a lawyer

dann@gallupafrica.com