By  WILLIS OKETCH

Prosecutors have for the first time charged person for displaying leaflets bearing words Pwani Si Kenya (Coast is not part of Kenya) the catch word for Mombasa Republican Council (MRC).

The suspect was arrested at Likoni on Monday as police intensified crack down on members of the separatist group, which they also accuse of administering oaths to bind youths to its agenda.

This is the first trial of a suspected MRC member after the July lifting of an order that proscribed the group in 2009.

It came about two months after the Director of Public of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko warned of criminal action against MRC slogans and chants that violate the Constitution and other laws.

Alfred Bati Chepori was charged before Mombasa Principal Magistrate Mr Samuel Gicheru with incitement to violence for distributing leaflets bearing words PWANI SI KENYA.

Chepori who was arrested in Likoni on October 1, denied the charges and was released on a bond of Sh50,000 with similar surety.

The hearing date was set for November 13.

The accused denied that on October 1 at Likoni Ferry in Mombasa County, without lawful excuse was found distributing leaflets which implied it was desirable nobody in Coast should obey the law.

Despite Tobiko’s warning, MRC leaders and supporters still chant separatist slogans and distribute literature.

Meanwhile, the MRC has showed evidence of intensifying its campaign in mosques and other places.

The group’s spokesman Rashid Mraja recently told worshippers at a mosque in Bakarani in Kisauni that the MRC had decided to campaign in the mosques because the Government had denied them a license to call a public rally.

“We will use the mosques as our arena to educate the local community on why MRC must continue with activities,” said Mraja.Lifting the ban in July, Justice Francis Tuiyott and two other judges said the 2009 banning order was unconstitutional and illegal because the government did not provide evidence of MRC’s alleged threats to security. He advised the MRC to register as a political party to agitate for its goals but warned that separatism cannot be part of those goals.

The judges said that splitting the country to carve out a new country in Coast province is unconstitutional.