Votes blind parties to secessionists’ threat
By MWAKERA MWAJEFA mwajefa@ke.natrionmedia.com
Posted Saturday, May 26 2012 at 21:57
Posted Saturday, May 26 2012 at 21:57
After a battle for supremacy in Mombasa last weekend, leaders from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and United Democratic Forum (UDF) are claiming success out of their vote-hunting missions.
But the controversy generated by the outlawed Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) has seen the two political camps extend their rivalry to Parliament where each has filed a motion to look into the MRC grievances.
Their weekend utterances in Mombasa County have elicited sharp reactions from two other presidential aspirants – Narc-Kenya’s Martha Karua and Party of Action’s Raphael Tuju, who want the outlawed group to drop its separatist agenda.
While addressing the 28th Session of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya at a Mombasa hotel on Thursday, Mr Tuju faulted politicians trying to make political capital out of the issue.
“What is the use of setting up a Parliamentary Select Committee when we know the issues of this group?” he posed and asked the government to deal with it instead.
A day earlier, while addressing the same gathering, Ms Karua made a plea to MRC to drop its secessionist demand, saying the Constitution will address their concerns.
Land ownership
She advised that breaking away from Kenya is not the solution on unemployment, resource management and land ownership.
The solution, according to her, is to participate fully in the coming General Election and put the right people in leadership.
But a bemused MRC leadership has told off all presidential hopefuls and their parties for using “cheap politics” to attract the coastal voting bloc.
“Hunting for votes in our name will not earn any leader or party political mileage here (Coast) but will backfire in their faces because we are not fools,” said the group’s secretary-general Randu Nzai Ruwa during an interview in Mombasa.
Since the group came to the fore about two years ago, it has snowballed into a formidable force that is not only worrying the security apparatus but also incumbent political leaders in the region.
It has also seen presidential aspirants who previously took a hard stance on the group change tune in the hope of swinging the vote basket on their side.
Last weekend, ODM had this in mind when it organised elaborate road shows targeting three counties of Kilifi, Mombasa and Kwale.
Speaking at Likoni, the unofficial MRC headquarters, the PM categorically associated the group’s concerns to the “second liberation” of the 1990s that led to the repeal of Section 2A and change of Kenya’s political destiny.
“These youths calling themselves MRC are talking Raila’s language, the language of liberation. They have seen oppression from those who took over power (at independence) and imposed the rule of quislings,” he said.
These remarks were in total contrast to what he said a month ago when he told the outlawed outfit to renounce its separatist bid for the government to hold talks with its leadership.
From his tone and body language, the PM had made a quick about-turn to get MRC on his side by describing its following as “our people, our youth and brothers” out to correct past historical injustices.
During a UDF rally on Saturday, Mr Mudavadi said his party would move Parliament to initiate talks with MRC.
“Everybody has been shying away but UDFP wants to break the impasse through Parliament and Hon Jeremiah Kioni has already drafted the motion to set up a select committee to dialogue with MRC to seek a lasting solution to the issues affecting them.
“This is being done in the spirit of national reconciliation,” said Mr Mudavadi. ODM has also filed a motion on the same.
Commenting on the weekend rallies, University of Nairobi lecturer Dr Muhammad Swazuri says they exposed the existing leadership’s deficiency in the region, which has attracted the rush by presidential aspirants for a share of the region’s votes.
“Coast is a ship without a captain in the middle of a storm and, because of this, captains from elsewhere are streaming here to captain us out of the troubled waters to their territorial safety grounds,” he said.
An ODM road show organiser, Mr Abdullswamad Nassir, said the party was strong at the Coast.
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