A Muslim cleric has warned that the Coast secession agenda may not succeed unless MRC leader Omar Mwamnuadzi becomes the region's leader.
Sheikh Amani Khamis said on Monday that the exiled MRC leader has a better chance of winning the trust of Coast people than Governors Hassan Joho and Amason Kingi.
On Friday, the Mombasa and Kilifi county bosses respectively began the process of seeking self-rule, citing marginalisation by successive governments.
Khamis, who is Kenya Muslims National Advisory Council acting secretary general, said the Governors do not have Coast residents' interests at heart.
Sheikh Khamis and KEMNAC chair Sheikh Juma Ngao said the two leaders are only after power in their push for the region to disengage from the rest of the country.
They said attaining self-rule is a mirage.
"If they are serious about seceding, they should make Mwamnuadzi the leader of the region. Only then will we know that they mean business," Sheikh Khamis said.
The clerics asked the Governors to ensure all MRC members who have court cases are adequately represented by top lawyers in the country.
He said this is because they (MRC leaders) were fighting for the same agenda the two governors are now agitating for.
Mwamnuadzi was in the forefront of agitating for secession and was once seriously beaten by police officers who arrested him at his house in Kwale.
His face was so disfigured that a High Court judge in Mombasa could not recognise him and ordered that the real Mwamnuadzi be brought to court.
However, the MRC leader has since gone missing, jumping bail and skipping several court sessions.
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Sheikh Ngao said Coast residents will suffer more should the region be allowed to form its own government.
"Mombasa is filthy. Kilifi residents are losing fertility in salt firms. Drug usage is rampant in the two counties but the leaders have done nothing," he said in their address to
reporters at a hotel in Mombasa.
Sheikh Ngao added that the secession calls are meant to make them relevant "because they know they will go nowhere after the end of their second terms in office".
The vocal cleric said no Coast native was involved in the signing of documents that allowed the Coastal strip to be part of Kenya in the early 1960s.
This was a deal between the Sultan of Zanzibar who led the whole Coastal 10-mile strip.
"This means once the region secedes, which is near impossibility, Coast residents will have to go to Omani sultans to seek permission to stay in the region," Ngao said.
He added Joho and Kingi do not know the history of the Coast and are speaking from a point of ignorance.
"I studied education, history and religion. They should come for history lessons so they can better understand the Coast region," Sheikh Ngao said.
He noted secession bids have failed in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Egypt, South Sudan, Catalonia, among other areas where there is no peace up to date.
The Mombasa Republican Council is opposed to the proposal by Joho and Kingi.