5 MRC (Mombasa Republican Council) recruits were arrested on Saturday evening as they took an oath of allegiance inside a house in Magogoni area of Kisauni. The police raided the house after receiving intelligence that it was being used for subversive activities. The arrested individuals were Mwanajuma Bakari, Hassan Omar Gawawa, Gawawa Bashora, Dhado Idd and Hamisi Omar. The person was to administer the oath was Mwanajuma Bakari, a local witchdoctor. They will be arraigned in court today.
The police also confiscated the paraphernalia that was to be used to administer the oath. The confiscated items will be used as exhibit in court. Among the oathing paraphenalia were a brown liquid, hand-written citations and beaded ropes.
MRC is currently recruiting individuals to its militant cause. Late 2014, several MRC members raided the Nyali Barracks and during the ensuing pandemonium, 6 of its members were killed while KDF lost one soldier.
On Sunday, KDF and KPS officers mounted multiple roadblocks along the busy Mombasa-Malindi road where they conducted thorough searches on all vehicles in order to apprehend criminals, arrest terrorists and also pre-empt a terror attack at the coast. The coastal region is being secured from al Shabaab infiltration; and the emergence of militant organizations is being stymied by the government in order to safeguard national security.
