Secession talks: Political grandstanding, genuine concerns or political positioning?

Gov. Joho and Kingi in a past press conference

Last week two out of the six governors of the coast region declared that they would set in motion processes for the secession of the coast region.

Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho popularly known among his supporters as “Sultan” and Kilifi Governor Amasson Kingi declared that they wanted the region to secede based on the fact that the area “has been marginalized by successive governments and the only way to get out of the marginalization was to determine own destiny.”

Secession talks are not a new thing at the coast of Kenya. In 2008, a separatist organization called the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) pushed for the secession of the coast region citing an agreement between the Kenyan government and the Sultan of Zanzibar for the administration of the region for a period of 50 years.

According to a Reuters(2012) report, the MRC claimed that they had “ … documents of a 1963 accord signed by then Kenyan Prime Minister and later president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and his Zanzibar counterpart Mohamed Shante, granting Kenya a 50-year lease over the coast.”

The government dismissed the documents as forgeries and went ahead to use legal and extra-judicial means to repress the organization that was accused of causing death and mayhem in the region as it set to advance its agenda.

During its heydays, the MRC a ragtag militia seemed to enjoy the support of a good number of locals. In fact, it beat logic how the organization whose leaders were of no known social or political standing managed to hold the government at ransom for such a long time and was accused of being behind the killing of police officers, chiefs and even attempting to disrupt the 2013 general elections under the banner “Pwani si Kenya.”

Claims amongst security watchers in the Coast region were that the organization was enjoying closet support of powerful political forces. Whether true or not, remains a fact for historians and researchers to establish.

So when the two Governors of semi-autonomous counties surrounded by their ODM lieutenants revived the debate, a number of issues arose.

• Were the claims merely for political grandstanding and part of the wider NASA resist strategy
• Were the claims genuine and therefore supposed to be pursued to their conclusive end?
• Were the two politicians who are now in their final term of service positioning themselves above other politicians so that they will be looked upon to guide the region’s political direction post 2022?
• How are the renewed claims for secession to be received by local people?

Sensitive region

Coast region is a sensitive region because it faces the challenges of radical extremism, infestation of criminal gangs, the entrenchment of the marginalization narrative and a tourism industry that is mainly dependent on peace and tranquility.

There is cause for concern especially based on the way that the MRC secession agenda was widely embraced by local people in some areas of Kwale, Mombasa and Kilifi Counties. Further, the extremists and the criminal gangs could take advantage of the message to unleash terror in the region.

From a communication standpoint, local leaders are not just cheap talk but powerful opinion shapers whose word is taken as the gospel truth by their followers and thus their secession word is enough to start creating ripples of targeted conflict in the region.

MRC spokesperson Rashid Mraja. He has dismissed renewed calls for
secession terming them dishonest  

There is need therefore to approach the renewed discourse with loads of sanity. While the leaders have given their assurances that they want to pursue peaceful and legal means, it is not over until it is over. 

The government and conflict transformation organizations ought to be vigilant enough to ensure that no life will be lost; no property destroyed or livelihood disrupted in the pursuit of the agenda.

Ends……..