Kenyan injustice radicalises poor and marginalised in Mombasa

From the daily nation

Unemployment, discrimination in issuing identity cards and land grabbing were among the reasons Muslim youths became radical, Mombasa leaders said Thursday.

Governor Ali Hassan Joho and Senator Omar Hassan said local youths had turned to violence and hooliganism due to idleness.

Mr Joho accused the private sector in Mombasa of denying the youths jobs, saying 90 per cent of staff were from other parts of the country. He cited supermarkets that hired large numbers of workers from upcountry.

“The reason why Muslim youths are always turning violent is because they are denied jobs.

Why do you bring 90 per cent of your workers from upcountry when locals are unemployed?” he asked.

Mr Joho said he would hold meetings with the county security team, religious leaders and other concerned parties to tackle the problem of radicalism among the youth.

He also assured tourism players and the businesspeople that security would be beefed up to contain violent crime.

The governor said plans were in place to install CCTV in the town and popular tourist spots.

Senator Hassan backed Mr Joho’s assertions, saying Muslim youths had resorted to radicalism due to lack of jobs, IDs, land grabbing and exclusion from government.

This had forced them to express their frustrations through riots, he said.

Land grabbing by influential individuals had also triggered protests.

“Mombasa people feel that the government has excluded them from a share of the national cake and that’s why you see riots after Friday prayers,” he said.

The leaders were speaking at Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort in Mombasa at a tourism stakeholders
 meeting.

Earlier, the KAHC national chairman Jaideep Vohra said the Masjid Musa Mosque chaos and a spate of violent crime had adversely affected tourism sector in the region.
Mr Vohra called on the Mombasa leaders to help address the radicalization of youth to help restore peace in the county.

He noted that the spate of grenade attacks which occurred in Mombasa and other parts of the Coast in recent months had dealt a blow to the sector.

“Security is very key for sustainable tourism.

The local leaders must therefore address the challenges of radicalism and chaos in mosques,” he said.

“No matter what the government does, we shall not be able to revive the industry if insecurity in the country is not contained,” he explained.

On the other hand, the KAHC official took issue with the Mombasa county chiefs for hiking hotel licenses by over 100 per cent as well as introducing more levies.

Mr Vohra termed the county’s approval of hotel levy as unacceptable and called on the governor to address the issue as a matter of urgency.

In a rejoinder, Mr Joho assured the hoteliers and tour operators that he would have a dialogue with them to address their grievances.

Comment: 

As there has been recent militant attacks in Kenya, we must put these actions in to perspective. It is a well known fact that many minorities are discriminated in Kenya on a regular basis. For example, there exists no tangible development in the Somali NFD region. That region has basically been a playground for the Kenyan military. Indeed KDF has been implicated in abuse, rape and looting according to HRW. 

Therefore one should not be surprised about the kind of discrimination the Mombasa youth face. The difference here though is that the Mombasa coast is the only coast of Kenya and basically constitutes its sole sea outlet. If the people were to have an uprising and somehow managed to secede, the rest of Kenya would be landlocked. 

It is in part because of this fear that has driven the Kenyan government to respond so harshly to talks of secessionism. The consequence has been that Islamic radicalism became a refuge for a once moderate and sensible people. This plays well into the hands of the Kenyan government since it wishes to portray the youth in Mombasa as terrorists and not as a discriminated and vulnerable group. Thus the underlying causes to the violence is not being sufficiently addressed, and only the symptoms seem to be the main topic.