Linking MRC to Al-Shabaab ‘sets stage for police killings’
MRC officials Randu Nzai (left), Mwadadu Mwamtewe and Richard Lewa (right) with Coast Regional Editor Njeri Rugene at the Nation offices in Mombasa on September 8, 2014. They demanded that Police Inspector-General David Kimaiyo apologise for linking them to Al-Shabaab. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA |
What you need to know:
- Secretary general Randu Ruwa said MRC leaders were living in fear that they would be targeted for elimination.
- Mr Randu claimed that the police might be hatching a plot to kill MRC leaders following the killing of Godane.
Mombasa Republican Council leaders on Monday reacted angrily to claims by Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo that the organisation had links with Al-Shabaab terrorists.
Led by secretary general Randu Ruwa, the MRC officials described Mr Kimaiyo’s claims as a precursor to extra-judicial killing of MRC members by police.
“Their agenda is to shoot us dead after tainting us in the eyes of the public,” Mr Ruwa said when he and the other officials visited the Nation newsroom in Mombasa.
“We have never ever held talks with Al-Shabaab or their leaders. We do not even know who they are. We have never been to Somalia.”
LIVING IN FEAR
The officials said Mr Kimaiyo was giving the group a bad name so that it could be targeted by the US. Their protest came just days after top Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane was killed in a US airstrike in Somalia.
Mr Ruwa was accompanied by the group assistant spokesman, Mr Richard Lewa, assistant secretary-general Mwadedu wa Mwamtewe and elders council secretary Mwatsahu Munga.
He said MRC leaders were living in fear that they would be targeted for elimination.
Mr Randu claimed that the police might be hatching a plot to kill MRC leaders following the killing of Godane.
He said MRC leaders were shocked by Mr Kimaiyo’s claims, linking them to the Al-Shabaab.
“How can we be terrorists yet we live in our respective homes?”
He challenged Mr Kimaiyo to make public the names of MRC leaders who had links with Al-Shabaab.
“If Mr Kimaiyo has evidence of MRC leaders who associate themselves with Al-Shabaab, let him mention them in public.”
The official also denied claims that the group jointly with Al-Shabaab, orchestrated the Lamu and Tana River attacks that claimed 100 lives.
“It is disappointing that the police routinely blame terrorist attacks and violent crime in the region on the MRC so as to cover up their failure to contain insecurity,” Mr Randu said.
He asked the government to name the people behind the Lamu and Tana River attacks instead of blaming the group.
Mr Ruwa said that last October, MRC leaders wrote a letter to President Kenyatta seeking audience with him on issues affecting the region, but they were yet to receive a response.
“We have been seeking good relations with the Jubilee government, but it seems the authorities are not interested in our gesture,” he said.
