Kenya's third president, Mwai Kibaki, orchestrated a little known coup, back in 1998, that could have potentially led to total anarchy.
The then Othaya Member of Parliament was furious following what he termed as state-sponsored killing from Likoni to Maela in 1997.
Violence erupted on Kenya's coast on August 13, 1997, launching weeks of terror in what had been a quiet resort area.
Conditions in Coast Province in 1997 provided fertile ground for fomenting politically motivated ethnic violence.
KANU politicians astutely turned local bitterness into political support for their party. As in other parts of Kenya, such as the Rift Valley, they rallied the local population around calls for majimbo, the federal system promising the return of land to the control of its pre-colonial inhabitants.
In testimony to the Akiwumi Commission, a witness named Joseph Ochwangi Onyiego, a resident of the Matuga area of Kwale district, stated that at a November 1991 public meeting his local councillor, of the ruling KANU party, advocated majimbo and incited violence against up-country residents.
The impact of the violence was devastating beyond belief, with statistics compiled by the police, which provide a conservative estimate, indicating that a total of 104 people were killed in the violence, and at least 133 more were injured.
Incensed by the killings the then DP leader led a huge group of central Kenya MPs to mourn those who had been killed.
Uknown to many, Kibaki, late Kihika Kimani as well as the late David Mwenje were slowly amassing support for a move to secede and take over the country.
They soon openly started calling for secession, envisioning a new country which was to include Nakuru, Laikipia, Meru, Embu, the five central Kenya counties and Nairobi, with Kihika being tasked with mobilizing the army for swift takeover.
Mwenje stated that the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) was in Embakasi and he would not allow the then president, Daniel Arap Moi, to land ever again, once he left an international trip, a report by Future of Kenya Foundation Director, Cyprian Nyamwamu disclosed.
Kibaki was asked to be ready to be sworn in because he had won the election anyway, but was unlawfully rigged out by the ruling party.
On his part, the DP leader was firm in his belief that a government that kills its people has no right to govern them and it's justified for those being oppressed to secede.
Bishop Ndingi Mwana'Nzeki presided over the mass. during the burial of the hundreds of slain innocents, with Willy M Mutunga and Kivutha Kibwana chosen to lead the new movement's civil society wing.
However, despite the vocal cords for total secession by the huge group of MPs, their plans never got to the next phase, with Moi maintaining his firm grip on the country.
