Many areas of Kenya’s economy have become insecure in the wake of the Sept. 21, terrorist attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi that claimed at least 67 lives.
A car bomb explosion on April 23 at Pangani Police Station in the capital killed four people – two police officers and two civilians.
Opinions differ about whether or not the government can handle in the right manner the escalating insecurity due to the series of threats. Although the financial consequences may have been devastating for the country’s tourism and foreign direct investment volume, some of the “new” allies, such as China, still appear confident in investing in infrastructure.
An example of Chinese engagement is the railway project connecting the port of Mombasa with Nairobi.
Terrorists from Somalia seem to have shifted their base to Kenya, according to Denise Kodhe, executive director of the Institute for Democracy and Leadership in Africa.
“It is interesting that Somalia is becoming stable and more secure than Kenya,” Kodhe said in an AFKInsider interview. “All the bombs and grenades have been transferred to Nairobi, and its Eastleigh estate has become the headquarters of another Somalia in Kenya.”
Eastleigh, aka Small Mogadishu, is a commercial hub for immigrants from all over the region. Somalis represent its most dominant community.
Macharia Munene is a professor of history at the U.S. International University in Nairobi. Munene disagrees with Kodhe’s view that terrorists have shifted from Somalia to Kenya. “For a long time there have been terrorist-inclined people in the country as evidenced by assorted terrorist attacks,” Munene said. “What is rather new are the justifications that terror activists use to explain themselves.”
Many questions remain unanswered about the 2013 Westgate attack. There is still no comprehensive report on the whole event, and this is rather worrying in the region.
“It was shocking to see how inaptly and slowly Kenyan security forces reacted,” said Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society in London, in an AFKInsider interview. “With regard to more recent incidents, soft and sophisticated intelligence activity would be needed instead of the tough measures the defense forces have been applying.”
The terrorist attacks have had negative affects on the economy and the lifestyles of Kenyans. “At the coast, the tourist-dependent economy is suffering as guests cancel bookings,” according to Munene. “Foreign direct investments are also affected badly since uncertainty does not inspire confidence. Some foreigners will continue to invest, but others are likely to stay away and watch the unfolding scenario.”
Kenyan tourism officials estimate the country has been losing at least $1 million a day because of the decline in tourism, according to National Geographic News contributor Stefan Lovgren.
Some Muslim and Christian leaders try to avoid the religious divisiveness a growing number of people want to add to the incidents.
“The Kenyan security forces should move in firmly and swiftly to sweep out terrorists and other criminal groupings in Kenya irrespective of what color or tribe they belong to,” said Kodhe.
“Insecurity is not a matter of religion although there are forces, both internal and external, that might want it portrayed as such,” Munene said. “It is more geopolitical jostling manifesting itself in the periphery through terror attack that make people lose confidence in the state. Terrorists appear to be tools of bigger forces that are yet to be exposed. It is thus not a Christian-Muslim feud.”
The issue is one of ethnicity, rather than religion, according to Dowden. “In Europe, the Christian-Muslim question used to be very divisive for centuries,” Dowden said. “In Africa it has always been different, as it did not cause political division.”
In his 2008 book, “Africa. Altered States, Ordinary Miracles,” Dowden argued, “Beneath the surface of Africa’s weak nation states lie old cultures, old societies and communities, and a deep sense of spiritual power … The spirit world, Muslim, Christian or traditional, lies at the heart of many African societies, a core belief in the power of spirits, (which) partly explains Africans’ lack of political or social agency.”
Kodhe said, “terrorism, hooliganism are all criminal acts that should be condemned by all whether Muslims or Christians. Nobody has the right before God or before the law to claim the life or lives of other people in the name of fighting for religion or other individual self- driven interests as the case may be.”
The Jubilee government of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, “should pull up its socks to ensure that Kenyans are safe wherever they are,” Kodhe told AFKInsider. “They should not hesitate to relieve any ineffective official out of duty irrespective of their positions or political affiliations. Security matters should not be compromised because it touches on lives of people.”
It is in Kenya’s interests to ensure stability not only in the country, but also in its closest vicinity, in Somalia and the neighborhood, Munene said. “Defeating terrorists in Somalia is one way of ensuring security in the region, despite short-term shortcomings.”
István Tarrósy is assistant professor of political science and director of the Africa Research Center at the University of Pécs, Hungary. In 2013, he was Fulbright visiting research fellow at the Center for African Studies, University of Florida.
