Mombasa Republican Council Mombasa Republican Council Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) is a separatist organisation based in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya. The group claims areas around Mombasa and the coastal area. It has both Muslim and Christian supporters. The leader of the group is Omar Mwamnuadzi and he was charged in 2014 along with 11 other members. However, the group denies claims by government officials that it has forged links with Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabaab. The Mombasa Republican Council was formed in 1999 to address perceived political and economic discrimination against the people of the coast province. The group traces its
Mombasa Mombasa Island. Importantly, both of these names have linguistic and spiritual connections with Central Africa. "Mkisi" is considered the personification of "ukisi" which means "the holy" in kiKongo. "Kongowea" can similarly be interpreted as the Swahili locative of "kongo" which denotes the essence of civilizational order in central Africa. These legends can be read as an acknowledgment of the Bantu-speaking origins of the Swahili people. Shehe Mvita superseded the dynasty of Mwana Mkisi and established the first permanent stone mosque on Mombasa Island. Mombasa's oldest extant stone mosque, Mnara, was built c. 1300. Shehe Mvita is remembered as a Muslim