by By a Correspondent, Kenya, October 1997
THEME = SOCIAL CONDIT.
Mombasa people think of the region's woes as a kind of curse. First came the unprecedented spilling of innocent blood in Likoni, which badly dented Mombasa's image as a tranquil and peaceful city. Then two months later, the heavens opened, and a deluge, the like of which had never before been experienced, descended on the area, causing further suffering.
Similar wash-outs affected large sections of the main railway line
out of Mombasa, as well as the Mombasa-Nairobi highway. Mombasa
Port serves the whole of Eastern Africa and parts of Congo RDC.
More than 300 containers awaiting clearance, were submerged in
flood water. Shipping lines issued warnings that they would in no
way hold themselves responsible for the massive claims that were
sure to follow, because of damaged goods.
At Bombolulu Workshop for the Disabled, more than US $75,000 worth
of jewellery and cultural artifacts were lost. After President
Moi's flying visit to the area, the whole Coast was declared
a disaster zone.
Flood water tunnelled under the chainlink fencing at Bamburi Park,
allowing a group of crocodiles to escape from their enclosure. The
Park has since been closed as owners ponder how to recapture the
animals.
It was important to insist on this, as word was spreading like
wildfire, that the storms were a curse sent to punish people
for the violence which had begun two months ago, and which is kept
simmering, to ensure that those uprooted, do not return until after
the elections.
All this, has had a bad effect on people's livelihood and on the
tourist industry. A senior tourist consultant says the combined
effect of the violence and then the weather, will mean a number of
bankruptcies in the Mombasa hotel industry before the end of
the season next March.
Before the deluge, charter flights into Mombasa were running at
about a 50% capacity. In itself, this is a major drop in tourist
arrivals. Hotels in Malindi, the favourite destination of Italians,
are now, mostly closed. Bed-occupancy in many hotels is running at
about 20%-40% at a time of the year when it should be anything
between 80%-90%.
The paper's message was that the killings were targeting Africans, but as weeks wore on, Indian traders and retired Europeans were sucked into the terror, with gangs of youths moving in for the spoils.
President Moi referred to those fleeing the suburbs of Likoni, as "refugees". Their numbers soon swelled to 100,000 and more. This is not an exaggerated figure but is based on the registered electorate of Likoni who voted for the opposition Ford- Kenya party five years ago. Most of Likoni's inhabitants are people whose ancestors originally came from upcountry. But coastal people are living here as well.
Costal people fled as far south as Tanzania, while "upcountry" folk fled for shelter to the Catholic Cathedral and other churches in Mombasa or went back home upcountry.
There are political undertones to the whole "refugee" question. Upcountry people are likely to vote with the Opposition, so if the Coast Province were to go to opposition leader Mrs Charity Ngilu, the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) would be in real trouble. Hence the mass evacuation of upcountry people away from the area!
END