Ghosts Of Political Chaos Haunt Coastal Town As March Elections Beckon

Political aspirants accused of recruiting gangs to face off with opponents, despite attempts to foster peace

BY JOHN MWANGI
SUNDAY, 16 DECEMBER, 2012

Political aspirants accused of recruiting gangs to face off with opponents, despite attempts to foster peace

The recent spate of political vio- lence in Mombasa has brought back dark memories of rogue politicians intimidating their opponents into quitting the race for office.

Political debutants and first time aspirants, who hardly understand the murky waters of politics, are often intimidated into quitting. The political landscape has always had the natives feeling short changed by people from the upcountry. In the early 1990s, KANU officials keen on being re-elected, but feared they could lose, exploited the “majimbo” issue in the run up to the 1992 General Election. The residents took it as eu- phemism to chase away the “wabara” or the up country people. The Likoni

clashes in 1997, in which scores of non-natives were slaughtered and thousands driven out of their homes is largely blamed on the majimbo calls. During the Likoni clashes, young men from Kaya Bombo in Kwale County unleashed violence targeting up country people, with one’s ability to respond to Digo greetings to set apart natives from the upcountry people.

The youths armed with crude weapons had also undergone oathing, which made them vicious and supposedly invisible. But it is the laxity of security forces in pursuing the raiders that invited speculations that the raiders were on a political mission to stop upcountry people from registering as voters. The locals, mainly from the Mijikenda communities, Waswahili and the Arabs accuse upcountry people of taking up their employment opportunities.

In Mombasa County for example, only Changamwe has had the benefit of having an area Member of Parliament from the upcountry, the late Kennedy Kiliku, who bestrode the political landscape like a colossal from 1983 to 1997 when he lost to current MP Ram- adhan Kajembe.

The rest of the constituencies have been dominated by persons from the Mijikenda community or of Arab descent. The town has a history of political violence and intimidation that began during the reign of former Cabinet minister Sharrif Nassir. And it appears politicians are not ready to leave this bad habit even with the coming into force of the new Constitution.

The latest incident of violence is where Nyali parliamentary seat aspir- ant, Hezron Awiti was attacked by peo- ple believed to be allied to an assistant minister. It brought back the dreadful memories of political violence in the region also reeling from the shock of Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) activities. Awiti was on his way to the ODM rally in Tononoka Grounds when he was attacked. He said his chase car was blocked at Nyali Bridge by one of the cars accompanying Assistant Minister Ali Hassan Joho as youths alighted from other vehicles brandishing guns and threatened to kill his three body guards.

Peace movement

He accused the youths of smashing the windscreen of his escort car and injuring his bodyguards. “The car in which Joho was travelling in came and knocked my car from behind,” said Awiti. The incident has been condemned across the board with members of different political parties coming together to form a peace movement. When Awiti called a press briefing a week ago, he made it clear he would not be cowed by attempts to have him drop his ambition to go for the newly created Nyali seat. The parliamentary seat is curved from Joho’s Kisauni con- stituency. Interestingly, Joho and Awiti belong to the Orange Democratic

Movement (ODM). The incident acquired a new twist when Awiti’s sup- porters dragged religion and ethnicity in the issue, with Awiti’s Luo commu- nity, which forms a good percentage of Kisauni voters vowing to derail Joho’s quest to be Mombasa Governor at the ballot. The nature of Mombasa politics is such that those intimidated either bow out of the political race, while those who remain have to bear the brunt of hired goons with firm instructions to deal decisively with political oppo- nents.

Employing violence against an op- ponent is meant to vanquish him or her during campaigns and polling day. Rival gangs of intoxicated youths clash in political rallies, sometimes causing total disruption.Women candidates are the most vul- nerable, with some of them being frustrated verbally, physically and psycho- logically. Most people remember snide remarks thrown at National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) leader Charity Ngilu in the run up to the 2002 General Elec- tion. Her detractors from the oppos- ing camp, said she was not a decent woman since she accompanied two men, the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa and then presidential candidate, Mwai Kibaki in their strategy meetings, which were mostly held at night.

But as politicians use violence to silence critics, the police have been accused of laxity and inaction. For instance, after the three bodyguards were badly injured, they reported the mat- ter to the police, but were reportedly turned back. Awiti, who also claimed his life is in danger, has since teamed up with three other aspirants in the county from Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM) and United Democratic Front (UDF) to push for peaceful campaigns ahead of the Gen- eral Election on March 4, 2013.

Sureya Hersi of WDM, Hassan Omar of ODM and Suleiman Shahbal of UDF pledged to work together to foster peaceful coexistence among residents of different religions, political parties, ethnicity and race.“Mombasa is a cosmopolitan county and to victimise someone on the basis of reli- gion, ethnicity is unbearable,” said Omar, who will be contesting Mombasa Senate seat on an ODM ticket.

Compete peacefully

The veteran human rights activist notes that leaders with no ideologies rely on whip- ping up negative emotions and tension to win elections. The movement dubbed “movement for change” seeks to ensure residents don’t clash on the basis of party lines, racial line or religion.

“We’re in competition yes, but let us compete peacefully,” said Shahbal who is contesting the Mombasa gubernatorial seat. He said he has been a victim of assault in one of his campaign trails. MRC, which holds secessionist views, has also come out as a threat to peaceful elec- tions in the province. The hacking to death of Fisheries assistant minister Amason Kingi’s body guard at a rally within Kilifi two months ago, is an incident many locals would wish to forget. Three of the attack- ers were rounded and killed by the locals. Coast Provincial Police Commander, Ag- grey Adoli said the attack was orchestrated by people belonging to MRC. Prime Minister Raila Odinga attributed the attacks to ODM enemies out to disrupt the elections and voter registration.

“It looks to me like there are people who want to disrupt the elections and the registration of voters especially in ODM zones so that people cannot register and eventu- ally vote,” Raila said. The goons are mainly jobless youths mainly drawn from slums and sponsored to cause havoc on opponents’ political rallies. The goons use crude weapons such as stones, machetes and rungus.

With the campaigns for the March elec- tions coming close, aspirants for various seats have formed gangs either to protect them or scare their rivals or supporters. Speaking to The People Sunday, Adoli warned that politicians found propagating hate speech and election violence will be dealt with decisively in accordance with the new Constitution. “The new law is a shot in the arm and police will not hesitate to apply it to ap- prehend politicians hell bent on instigating violence during and after campaigns,” warned Adoli.