NSIS to put up centre in Kwale County

A new office for the national spy agency will be built in Coast Province, signalling the seriousness the government is attaching to threats posed by secessionist groups in the area.

The new centre to house the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) will be built on land set aside in Kwale County, South Coast.

The land is within Kwale Town, Golini Location and Matuga Division, according to a notice in the current edition of the Kenya Gazette.

Typical with such projects, the government has neither revealed the type nor the use of facilities to be put up at the centre.

But the government has invited the public to inspect the development plans and either make suggestions or object.

Members of the public have 60 days from May 8 to make their views on the project known.

Incidents of groups emerging to threaten security have been on the increase in the Coast in the recent past with the most recent being the Mombasa Republican Council, which was outlawed by the government.

It is suspected that MRC was founded in the late ‘90s to push for the secession of what was historically known as the Coastal Strip from Kenya on grounds of marginalisation by successive governments.

It is believed to have been behind the 1997 Likoni violence that saw hundreds of upcountry people killed or injured in a wave of attacks. The fighters accused the upcountry people of economic domination.

Following a major government crackdown, the group went underground only to surface in 2005 when five of its members were shot dead and scores arrested by police.

The group was caught in a police ambush as its members trained at Mulungu Nipa Forest on the outskirts of Mombasa.

After another lull, the group came out in full force sometime last year, openly demanding its own State.

It cites a pre-colonial era agreement between the colonial government and the Sultan of Zanzibar who ruled the Coastal Strip before it became a British Protectorate.

According to MRC spokesman Mohammed Rashid Mraja, the Sultan signed an agreement with the British allowing the latter to rule the region for 50 years upon which it would revert to the indigenous communities.

The 50 years, according to Mr Mraja lapsed in 1963 but the Kenyatta Government cheated them of their right to self-governance.

Through its slogan “Pwani Si Kenya”, the group has launched a campaign to ensure that Coast residents do not take part in the next General Election if its demands are not met.

It has been accused of being behind recent attacks on the offices of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in the region, the latest being in Bomani, Kwale County, last week which left two watchmen dead and several computers destroyed. (READ: Karua asks MRC to drop secession calls)