The Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) has announced plans to escalate its decades-long campaign for coastal self-governance to international bodies, accusing the government of repeatedly defying court rulings that have upheld the legitimacy of the movement and its claims over the coastal region.
Speaking to the press in Kaloleni, MRC leader Franklin Ngumbo said the group had already written to the United Nations, the African Union, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice, after exhausting what he described as every available domestic legal avenue.
“We went to court and the court gave us a justifiable ruling that we are entitled to govern our own affairs without interference from the government, but that victory has never been recognized. Every time we hold meetings, security forces come and arrest us. Some of our people are disappearing,” Ngumbo said.
Ngumbo said courts had ruled in favor of MRC on at least two separate occasions first in 1990, and again in 2010 with a further ruling in 2016 reaffirming that the council’s claims have legal merit and that the organization operates within the law.
Despite these rulings, he said, the Kenyan government has continued to dismiss court deliberations and instead making appeals in courts rather than implementing the rulings.
The MRC leader called on the government to immediately release all members currently held in detention, arguing that the imprisonment of its members contradicts binding court decisions. He also called on the government to allow the movement to hold peaceful meetings without police interference.
“We do not advocate for violence, we follow the law and we ask that the Kenyan government also respect its own laws,” he said.
MRC member Mamambuche Morgan said the group had been declared a legitimate organization in 2010 but continued to be treated as illegal by authorities. She said members faced sustained harassment, surveillance, and torture whenever they attempt to meet.
“Whenever we went to meetings, we were followed, tortured, and harassed. Now we are exhausted,” Morgan said.
The MRC bases its claim to coastal self-governance on historical grounds, arguing that the coastal strip which traces back to the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the British Protectorate established in 1888 was a distinct governing entity before being transferred to Kenya at independence.
The group contends that this transfer, made through an agreement between the governments of Zanzibar, Britain, and Kenya under Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta, was never consented to by coastal strip dwellers.
MRC founder Omar Mwamnuadzi, according to Ngumbo, first raised awareness of these historical claims after encountering documented evidence while in Canada, and subsequently returned to mobilize coastal communities.
By Ramadhan Nassib
