A meeting planned by Rabai residents to discuss persistent water shortage in the subcounty failed to take place on Saturday after local leaders branded it illegal.
The meeting had been organised for the last two weeks by Rabai Liberty group.
The residents got a nod from Rabai police station to hold the meeting at Mkapuni but later the police asked organisers to cancel the assembly.
“For the past two weeks, we have been organising this meeting and we were also to have a peaceful demonstration within Mkapuni. We had agreed with the Rabai police station OCS that we visit the station on Friday to finalize on how we will get security during the meeting. We were shocked when the OCPD told us to cancel the meeting because he had intelligence that it was not about water but politics,” Mariam Mkumbi, chairlady Rabai Liberty Group, said.
Mkumbi further said police told her their intelligence showed the meeting involved the Mombasa Republican Council.
“I told the OCPD that we would go on with the meeting and if he was sure that the matter was related to MRC then he should send his police officers to come and arrest the MRC members,” she said.
Rabai subcounty police commander David Maina refuted the claims that they linked the group to MRC.
“We stopped the meeting to avoid a possible confrontation. We discovered that the meeting was meant to undermine the local leadership. Some of the supporters of these leaders were not happy about the meeting and we anticipated a confrontation may ensue should the meeting go on,” Maina said.
But Rabai Liberty Group speaker Said Charo blamed a section of political leaders from the subcounty for arm-twisting the police to cancel the meeting.
Charo said most of the Rabai leaders did not want the community to air their views over the matter as they had contributed immensely to the water problem.
“Political leaders spent the better part of Thursday and Friday in Rabai. We even have information that they held a meeting with senior security officers in Rabai and that is where the leaders branded the planned meeting as an activity of MRC. This is an affront to our rights and our leaders are endangering our lives by branding us MRC members,” he said.
Mwinga Chokwe, the patron to Rabai Liberty Group, said the move by the leaders to plan the failure of the meeting was a clear indication of how failed the leadership is.
Former Mombasa nominated Senator Emma Mbura said the leaders went to the extent of paying locals not to attend the meeting.
