Kenya’s most vocal regional co-ordinator Nelson Marwa is the epitome of authority.
He is daring, doesn’t budge and always has the last word.
And as always, he did not disappoint last week and throughout the campaign period in Malindi when he accused the Opposition of plotting to rig the March 7 poll and unleashing violence on polling day.
In Coast, where he has worked for much of his life, previously in the defunct provincial administration where he was the last district commissioner for Kilindini before the 2013 General Election, Mr Marwa is hated and loved in equal measure.
In Malindi, where he was accused by some activists of ordering arrests of Opposition officials, Marwa hit back declaring that “I will not be silenced by anyone”.
Speaking last Wednesday in Kwale, he claimed policemen attached to Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi and Kilifi County MP Aisha Jumwa unleashed violence during the by-election where several Jubilee MPs were chased away or ejected over election bribery claims.
“...are they gods?” Marwa asked during the public meeting.
“I expected the Inspector General of Police to have come immediately to Malindi together with his deputies to deal with the problem because (police) officers are embarrassing the Government.”
Inspector General Joseph Boinnet has not responded to Marwa’s challenge.
The few people who have dared to engage Marwa have either lost the final battle or ended up with egg on their face.
Critics accuse Marwa of living in the past where DCs and PCs wielded a lot of power.
For instance no sooner had he spoken about the Malindi violence than the security officers assigned to governors Joho, Kingi and other Opposition leaders was reduced.
In October last year, Marwa picked a public quarrel with Transport Principal Secretary John Musonik when the latter accused the commissioner of intimidating civil servants at the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS).
Marwa was irritated when Mr Musonik defended former KFS Director Hassan Musa over a spate of ferry accidents across the Likoni Channel.
On October 28 following Marwa’s heavy criticism of Mr Musa and demand for his resignation, PS Musonik toured the KFS offices in Likoni and defended the embattled MD against accusations of incompetence and corruption at the institution.
On October 30, Marwa fired back accusing Musonik of trying to harass and intimidate him. He claimed that the PS was trying to protect an incompetent officer.
“There is more evidence which I am ready to adduce before the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) regarding runaway corruption at the KFS,’’ said Marwa who also declared that “I am not taking that lightly” after alleging Musonik had come to Mombasa to harass him.
Within days, Hassan Musa was replaced.
On March 26, 2014, Marwa also declared that all terror suspects would be shot on sight. His rationale was that courts were not able to convict terrorists to prevent them from committing violent acts.
Old policy
He also reasoned that the State was unable to produce witnesses to try terror suspects, earning the wrath of human rights activists who accused him of promoting extra-judicial killings.
Marwa spoke in the wake of the March 23, 2014, massacre of worshipers at a church in Likoni and after high-profile murders of moderate imams and takeovers of mosques by radical Muslims in 2013 and 2014.
Marwa has adopted the old provincial commissioner’s policy of meeting departmental heads after which he emerges to address the Press on various issues.
Some civil servants, including senior police officers, have complained to journalists that Marwa is interfering with their work.
Some senior police officers have taken him head on sometimes, with mixed results. Early this month, he commanded some Administration Police officers to raid a yard in Changamwe, which he claimed was supporting corrupt trade only to confront another group of policemen guarding the facility.
A senior police officer in Mombasa said that top officers were never briefed about the operation.
On March 12, last year, a quarrel erupted between Marwa and Mombasa Police Commandant Robert Kitur over police conduct amid rising insecurity.
Marwa invited Mr Kitur’s wrath when he said: “Police stations in Mombasa have been turned into ATMs.”
The county commissioner argued that there was a link between police laxity and misconduct and the rising crime in Mombasa.
Kitur was transferred from Mombasa late last year, on the same day Marwa was promoted from county commissioner to become Coast Regional Co-ordinator. In the Malindi by-election, he has lived up to his billing.
Mombasa County Jubilee Alliance Party Chairman Matano Chengo supports Marwa. “Marwa has never been a bully. He has always taken action against State officers frustrating innocent Kenyans,” he says.
But Executive Director of the Human Rights Agenda Yusuf Lule said Marwa has overstepped his mandate by using State machinery to intimidate the Opposition.
