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Kenya |
MINORITIES
...as seen in Media reports and local leaders’ statements
The situation is such that towards the end of last year, Asian businessmen in Nairobi and Mombasa took to the streets to protest over insecurity in these two cities. Their bone of contention was that there appeared to be, not just a serious lapse in security, but also, a premeditated, deliberate move to undertake acts of gangsterism directed against members of the Asian community. The protesters also claimed that police action following armed raids on business premises owned by Asians, many staged in broad daylight, had been noticeably wanting. Attacks on members of the community, they claimed, often took place in full view of impassive police officers who simply looked the other way as the thugs made off with impunity. What was even more frightening, they charged, was that the apparent confidence with which the attacks were executed, lending credence to suspicion that the police were probably colluding with the criminals.
The protesters also protested about attempts to blackmail Asian businessmen. What happens? The racketeers visit homes and business premises of unsuspecting Asian traders, pretending they’re Criminal Investigation Department officers. The racketeers then say they’re going to search the premises because they’ve received reports that the traders are trafficking in narcotics. To back up their act they produce handcuffs, police identity cards and walkie-talkies. Often they carry syringes and powdery substances resembling heroin or cocaine which they plant on their targets, and then demand money.
By the time the Press had got round to highlighting the issue, the racket had already seriously affected Asian-owned businesses in Nairobi’s Industrial area, its central business district shops and the predominantly-Asian, Ngara area.
Just a day before the demonstrations, a prominent 60-year-old Asian trader, Mr. Batu Shah, had been gunned in his business premises. Then, only hours after the demonstrators had retreated, gunmen, apparently unruffled by the protests, gunned down another prominent Asian businessman, Mr. Zeherali Chaturbhai Popat, in Nairobi, as he drove into his home with his wife, Zeenat, in the up-market Muthangari area.
For a while now, speculation has been rife that members of the Asian community in Kenya are watching the unfolding events keenly, ready to get out as soon as the situation demands. Some even believe that if the situation is not remedied immediately, large numbers of Asians will leave Kenya, as happened in neighbouring Uganda following the expulsion of Asian’s by its former dictator, Idi Amin in the early 1970s.
Either way, the issue of insecurity in Kenya touches at the very heart of Kenya’s economic problems, at a time when the government is working hard towards restructuring its bloated civil service and doing something to improve the economy. The fact is, the prevailing insecurity has done more than anything else, to cause a major slump in tourist arrivals. Tourism is one of Kenya’s main foreign exchange earners.
The «Asian Question» — The «Asian Question», as it has come to be known over the years, has always been a sensitive issue in East Africa, and in particular, Kenya. While Asians are by far in the minority (the 1999 census gives the figure at less than 500,000), Asians control a grossly disproportionate segment of the Kenyan economy. Hardworking, resourceful, imaginative and skilled entrepreneurs they may be, but it is an undeniable fact that their very visibility on the economic front, coupled with their isolation from other Kenyans, has not only bred envy, but makes them particularly vulnerable.
It does not help matters that the Asians who generate the most news, are those who have gained notoriety over the years for teaming up with powerful indigenous political figures to loot the national coffers on a grand scale.
It’s a pity, because it means there’s a seething under-current against members of the Asian community — an unfortunate situation given that they’ve been in the country for a long time, and most of them have a genuine enterprising spirit, guaranteeing economic success. This has been handed down from generation to generation, coupled with an emphasis on education and sheer hard work.
Uneasiness among Asians — The answer lies in the policies pursued by the state in the last three or so decades. During the era of the country’s first President, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, vigorous attempts were deliberately made to rectify the anomalies of the colonial era, by promoting indigenous enterprise at the expense of whites and Asians who had been favoured by the colonial regime.
The end result was that Africans, particularly those from Kenyatta’s own Kikuyu ethnic group, made headway in many sectors of the economy. A number of them made rapid progress in the fields of manufacturing and banking, and it was believed that it was only a matter of time before an authentic Kenyan capitalist class would come into its own.
The optimism was misplaced as events were later to prove. Kenyatta’s successor, Daniel arap Moi, began to withdraw state patronage from the African business class. He opted to prop up the more malleable Asian businessmen, catapulting some of them to instant fame, amid whispers that they were mere front-men of the emerging indigenous capitalist faction that had taken over the power.
While local African firms collapsed, Asians entrenched themselves in manufacturing, commerce and banking. The notable ones which emerged were the Sameer Investment Group owned by Mr. Naushad Merali, and the Dolphin Investment Group owned by Ketan Somaia. Merali’s investments included Firestone East Africa, Commercial Bank of Africa, First American Bank, Sameer Industrial Park, Ryce Motors, Eveready Batteries and a host of other successful firms. Somaia’s interests included Marshalls East Africa, Tourist Paradise Investment, United Touring Company, and Delphis Bank among others.
The African-Asian relationship in Kenya, with all its resentment and disharmony, is not unique. The question is, what can be done so that the Asian economic contribution can benefit both communities? Is it wise to attempt to banish such an economically productive dynamic group of people, as some politicians, principally among the Opposition, have so vigorously advocated? An entrepreneurial community in today’s capitalist world, is a precious resource that a developing country can ill afford to lose.
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