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A Sure Formula for Strife: Alleged suggestions for the creation of a Muslim jimbo at the Coast raises tension along religious lines
The Weekly Review, 12 February 1999
Coast Province has often been touted as a model of political tranquillity in a turbulent sea of ethnic and other interests that characterise much of Kenya politics. It is a region where many ethnic communities and religious faiths have appeared to mix seamlessly in an almost idyllic tropical setting.
Beneath the relatively tranquil surface, however, there has been a seething cauldron of barely submerged religious, political, ethnic and cultural tensions, which exploded around the middle of last year into an inexplicable orgy of bloodshed directed mainly against up-country ethnic communities.
The Likoni violence, which spread to various parts of Kwale and Kilifi districts was one of the worst incidents of ethnic cleansing in the country's history. It appears to have been well-organised and financed by a group of people who were pursuing a particular ethnic and political agenda.
Even now, the actual causes of the violence have not been unearthed, although a judicial commission of inquiry, headed by an appellate judge, Mr. Justice Akilano Akiwumi, has been delving into the mystery and other incidents of ethnic bloodshed around the country since 1991.
Since the advent of political pluralism, Kanu has been the dominant political party in much of Coast Province, although it has had to share parliamentary and civic seats with opposition parties in the cosmopolitan Mombasa District. Kanu MPs from Coast Province have usually presented themselves, at least to the outside world, as a united group. But now that facade of unity appears to have been shattered.
For the past week or so, a fierce public war of words has been raging between two groups of Kanu legislators divided along religious lines, each side led by its most senior political figure. The public exchanges between the Christian faction, led by the usually quiet and non-controversial minister for lands and settlement, Mr. Noah Katana Ngala, and the Muslim group, led by the minister for home affairs, national heritage, culture and social services, Mr. Shariff Nassir bin Taib, has come as a big surprise.
It all started two weeks ago, when a meeting of Muslim scholars and clergy in Mombasa to discuss constitutional reforms in the country reportedly recommended that in a future constitutional arrangement, only Muslim public administrators should be posted to Coast Province. The Muslims are also said to have called for the creation of an Islamic jimbo or state where Sharia laws would prevail.
This alleged recommendation, coupled with what is perceived in many quarters as the growing radicalisation of Islam in the region and the campaign for an ethnic-based federal or majimbo system of government, set the alarm bells ringing among the Christian communities of Coast Province.
Although the convenors of the Islamic meeting, including the beleaguered mayor of Mombasa municipality, Cllr. Najib Balala, later vehemently denied that they had proposed an Islamic state, the damage had already been done. Balala recently angered non-Muslims in Mombasa when he revived the traditional mayor's baraza to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan. Non-Muslims complain that there are "deliberate attempts to Islamise" Mombasa and Coast Province, and that the clamour for majimbo is part of that scheme.
A minister of state in the office of the president in charge of internal security and provincial administration, Maj. (Rtd.) Marsden Madoka, warned against "separatist" tendencies, which he described as "a drawback to national cohesion and unity, while the Democratic Party's MP for Kisauni, Mr. Emannuel Karissa Maitha, dismissed the suggestions allegedly made by the Muslim workshop as impractical. Madoka was reported to have characterised the idea of a Muslim state in Kenya as "misplaced and dangerous".
He called for "total" condemnation of the notion of a Coast jimbo, whose aim would be to break the political and democratic structure of the country. "Coast is not for Muslims alone. It is a secular, multi-racial province whose institutions cannot be based on a theocratic foundation," Madoka declared.
It was the strongest reaction to the purported Islamic scheme for Coast Province, but Madoka's statement did not draw as much venomous fire from Muslim political and religious leaders as did Ngala's far milder one. It was as if Madoka, who hails from Taita Taveta District, did not matter as much as Ngala, whose native area hugs the coastline which the Muslim empire builders are said to covet.
Ngala, perhaps expressing the fears and anxieties of the predominantly Christian ethnic communities in Coast Province such as the Giriama, Pokomo, Rabai, Taita and Taveta, criticised the utterances attributed to the Muslim gathering as "unfortunate" and likely to bring about religious and ethnic tensions. It was not long before the highly vocal Nassir pounced on his cabinet colleague, accusing him of fanning religious and ethnic animosities. The outspoken minister was quoted by the local daily newspapers as saying that Ngala "might be harbouring some religious hatred and jealousy towards Muslims".
Nassir has been talking about majimboism as if it is inevitable. The minister has recently declared that all the people of Coast Province support majimbo, while warning non-coastals to "keep away" from the politics of the region. It may not yet have dawned on the outspoken majimboist that there is quite a formidable group of people in Coast Province who do not agree with or support his ideas.
Analysts express fears that the growing radicalisation of Islam and the newly acquired assertiveness of Kenya's Muslim leaders could become a recipe for future ethnic and religious strife.