Fatally, after a few days when Somali mold grenades no longer resonate their eerie macabre in the churches of Nairobi or the Northeast of the country, it is the Kenyan coast to take on the disadvantages of the national chronicle.
The Mombasa Republican Council, better known as the MRC, which reminds more of a cruise company than an extra-parliamentary movement, has taken on a slice of popularity, passing short of being one of the many small Northern Style phenomena (demand for Devolution, wanting to create an autonomous region, if not a real state with capital Mombasa, leaving in fact Kenya without the outskirts of the sea) to arm their youths for acts of violence against local politicians.
So it happened that at a meeting wished by the Amason Kingi fishing minister, there were twenty boys, brandishing sharp pangs and screaming "Pwani si Kenya" (the coast is not Kenya).
Just the young people can skip slogans of the genre, because people of a certain age should remember that the coast is historically the opposite, it is Kenya's Kenya itself. Indeed, the country's development began in Mombasa and the rest of the country, up to World War I, was in charge of Kampala, Uganda. Nairobi and Rift Valley took on importance thanks to the railroad built by the British Empire to travel from Mombasa (the first capital of the Proto Kenya) to the capital of Uganda.
Like the official language of the country, kiswahili, which has always been the language of the coast, carried by the Arabs, molded through the advent of Portuguese and Indian and even codified by an Italian missionary, Vittorio Merlo Pick. Kenyatta wanted the gikuyu to become Kenya's official language, but the swahili was already too widespread. So that the coast needs to be considered more by the current political class, it is in the eyes of everyone, but from here to say that it is not Kenya, it passes. Rather, at first it seemed that this MRC could be in some way a cultural movement, something that would ignite the consciences not only of the inhabitants of the coast, but of the Islamic ones. Instead, as often happens, it has been taken seriously by young people who think they can solve their problems with violence.
There was only one thing to do, by the highest authority of the MRC, to distance themselves from these groups of exaggerated young people. But some have thought they could take advantage of it, to have an armed or aggressive arm that translated into their desire for separatism in view of the upcoming elections. To shake the waters (and in the end do anyway, wanting or not, the play of conservatives).
The establishment of a maasai, Ole Metito, as Minister of Interior and Security, has been a strong signal of the government. Yesterday the repression was tough. MRC's self-proclaimed leader was arrested after a gunfight by his men to defend his escape attempt. Conflict with the police where three people died. The Mombasa Republican Council has no political flaws, has nothing to do with terrorism, and yet its leaders are in jail for allegations of incitement to armed struggle and slogans against the government. It is to be said that their battle is that of a few within Mombasa and Mtwapa, while tribal ordinances and social-political inspiration associations are already making distances.
Violence is only violence and the coast needs especially quiet because its number one resource is tourism, and those who create revolt and disturbance in seaports certainly do not want the good of this region, even before the Well of this country.