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Muslims Threaten New Demo in Mombasa
By Ngumbao Kithi, The Nation (Nairobi), 29 June 2001
Muslim leaders in Mombasa have threatened to make the town "ungovernable" unless the reported allocation of Makadara Grounds is revoked. Representatives of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, the unregistered Islamic Party of Kenya and the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims said they would throw out anyone who attempted to build on the grounds. The public car park and a recreational park used by the faithful during Islamic festivities is said to have been sub-divided and given out to "politically correct individuals".
Coast Provincial Commissioner Samuel Limo has denied any knowledge of the transaction. But the religious leaders said they were acting on reports that the car park had been surveyed and sub-divided into four plots measuring 0.0933 hectares, 0.06 hectares, 0.0842 hectares and 0.5218 hectares. The claim is made in a letter to the PC from Muslims for Human
Rights (Muhuri) demanding that the allocation be revoked. Mr Limo referred the Nation to the group, saying: "Please discuss the letter with the authors. I have nothing to do with it and will not comment on it."
In a map of the contentious plot given to the Nation by Muhuri, Surveyor E.M.J. Kiguru says: "I hereby certify that I in person made and on the 10th of August, 2000, completed the survey represented by this plan on which are written the bearings and lengths of the lines surveyed by me and that the survey has been executed in accordance with the existing regulations."
The chairman of the Council of Imams, Sheikh Ali Shee, said rewarding political heavyweights with land at the Coast ahead of general elections had become a trend. During a Press conference soon after Dhuhur prayers, Sheikh Shee told the Government to stop using land in Coast Province as a reward to politicians and senior government officials. He said they would resist "at all cost" the alienation of the plot, which is of religious significance to the town's Muslims. "If this allocation is not revoked, the Government should prepare for mass action never witnessed before in this country," Sheikh Shee said.
The secretary-general of the Imams' council, Sheikh Mohammed Dor, accused the Mombasa Municipal Council of hypocrisy. Said Sheikh Dor: "It is wrong for the council to tell residents that it is not aware of the transaction when the law requires that a surveyor get a letter of no objection before working on any land." He was reacting to a statement by the acting Mombasa Town Clerk, Mr Hamisi Mboga, denying knowledge of the land grabbing. Mr Mboga promised to block anyone seeking consent for the allocation from his office.
The Supkem Mombasa District chairman, Sheikh Juma Ngao, said anyone planning to develop the plot would face the wrath of Muslims. "We shall not allow it," he vowed. If the land were to be allocated, said IPK Chairman Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, it should go to institutions such as the Muslims Education Welfare Association (Mewa), Supkem, the Council of Imams or charitable institutions.
On Wednesday, Muhuri threatened to go to court if the Government failed to revoke the allocation of the public car park. They demanded that the PC, who is the chairman of the plots allocation committee, tell residents if the plot has already allocated or was in the process of being given out.