Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa has cancelled a rally by Jubilee Party set for tomorrow at Mvita in Mombasa.
Mr Marwa said that Jubilee’s organisers did not inform the police, but more importantly the rally would have have caused a security nightmare since Nasa will also hold theirs at Tononoka grounds.
“When ODM wanted to hold a parallel meeting at the same grounds we talked to them and they agreed to postpone it. For the sake of equity we are saying that Jubilee should not hold a meeting close to Tononoka grounds,” Mr Marwa said.
A communications officer from JP coast secretariat said they were disappointed that the rally had been cancelled.
“Being law abiding citizens we will not hold the rally. However, there are some issues that we needed to address but we will do that using other avenues to be communicated later,” the officer said.
On Friday, a communications official of Jubilee, Abdulswamad Ali, had said the rally would be attended by all the senior party leaders from the six counties in Coast region.
“We will hold our rally at Mvita grounds because that is what we had planned earlier, not to compete with ODM,” said Mr Ali.
Jubilee said their arrangements are 75 per cent complete as Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho welcomed them to the county. The two grounds are not far from each other.
On the Tononoka rally, Mr Joho, who inspected the area on Friday, said they had notified the police about it and had been given the go ahead.
“The Constitution says Kenyans are free to hold rallies and picket. There is nothing like getting a permit. You only notify the police, something we have done, and they replied that permission is granted,” he said and displayed the notification to the media.
Urban police boss Lucas Ogara said the ODM leadership had been given the permission to hold their rally but added that he was not aware of the one planned by Jubilee.
“Makupa OCS informed me that they (ODM) have notified them and permission granted. I am, however, not aware of the other one by Jubilee,” said Mr Ogara.
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