Gitau Warigi
21 October 2007
Nairobi — The October 14 Sunday Nation carried front-page photographs of President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga attired in the Muslim kanzu and kofia as they attended Idd-ul-Fitr celebrations in Mombasa and Nairobi respectively.
There were plenty of murmurs about this, but it was essentially a demonstration of the extraordinary attention being paid this time around to the Muslim vote, which has never before been wooed with so much intensity.
The way the Muslim community has been thrust into focus in this election is not entirely because of its numbers, crucial as these are. Historically, Muslims, as a body, have sought to play a somewhat passive role during elections. But it is clear this time around that there will not be any passivity as a number of issues have come up that have sharply politicised the community and caused unprecedented internal divisions at the same time.
The old notion that Muslims, especially those from North Eastern province, tend to follow the establishment in power was shattered in the 2005 referendum when the community is believed to have overwhelming voted No. This time, too, the ODM, which campaign for a No vote, appears to be riding high in many Muslim areas, according to a series of Nation-commissioned opinion polls.
A prominent Nairobi lawyer and Muslim, Mr Ahmed Adan, who is from Isiolo, sought to introduce what, in his view, is a crucial distinction. This was how he put it: "When there is a big idea that affects the Muslim faith as a whole, Muslims will promptly unite. That was the case with the referendum where the community wanted to defend the sanctity of Kadhi Courts. But when it comes to elections and other political matters, Muslims will vote like everybody else, which is according to their local, regional or other concerns."
As a matter of fact, the Muslim vote has never really been monolithic. When it comes to voting patterns, the importance of clans in North Eastern has all along been critical, even in the days when Kanu routinely swept the board in the province.
Again, Muslims in the "hinterland" in places like Kisumu, Nyeri, Kakamega or Nakuru, who account for a surprisingly large proportion of the community, will often vote according to local sentiments.
This year, a particularly emotive issue is at work which has put the Kibaki government severely on the defensive: the transfer or "rendition," of suspected Islamic terrorist to Ethiopia. Related to this are the frequent anti-terrorist police swoops carried out at the Coast which have antagonised many Muslim families. Older issues of alleged discrimination in the issuance of passports and identity cards have also been added to the long list of grievances.
Subsequent to Ethiopia's military ouster of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union last December, Kenyan authorities reportedly handed over about two dozen suspected Muslim militants to Ethiopia where they were promptly incarcerated.
There is considerable confusion about the circumstances, and even the nationality, of the suspects. Muslim spokesmen have firmly declared that the men are Kenyan citizens and have been raising the issue of why, if they were suspected of something, they were not tried under Kenyan law by Kenyan courts.
Mr Kibaki himself, while campaigning to woo Muslims, has asked the Muslim community to hand him the names of any such deportees so that he can intercede with Ethiopian authorities for their release. Muslim leaders say the government was given the names in July.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua, however, introduced a completely different element when he denied that the deportees were Kenyan. According to Dr Mutua, government authorities together with local Muslim leaders, scrutinised the names and identities of the deportees and determined they were not bona fide Kenyan citizens. The implication of Dr Mutua's denial is that the suspects were foreigners who may have been fleeing Somalia when when the Ethiopians invaded, an occurrence that was not uncommon.
Dr Mutua's statement angered many Muslim leaders, who insist the families of the deportees are known and that there are signed affidavits to that effect which the Government has in its possession.
Reports that an MoU has been signed between Mr Odinga and some Muslim figures have added to the intrigue. The response of Chief Kadhi Hammad Kassim has been that Muslims don't vote according to MoUs but do so, like everybody else, as individuals and according to their conscience. The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) has backed this position and rejected the validity of any such MoU.
It is nonetheless evident that there is a deep split in Muslim ranks. Supkem itself is divided politically. Then there is the National Muslim Leaders Forum (NAMLEF), a group that seeks to rival Supkem. NAMLEF, which is chaired by Mr Abdullahi Abdi, is the group with which the ODM signed that mysterious MoU.
Two of the most vocal backers of this MoU and of Mr Odinga, Sheikh Mohammed Dor and Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, subscribe to yet another group called Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK). However, the Dor-Khalifa axis is a largely Mombasa operation. Additionally, Sheikh Khalifa is the chairman of the unregistered Islamic Party of Kenya (IPK).
On Tuesday, President Kibaki appointed an official committee with a special brief to investigate alleged discrimination of Kenyan Muslims by the Government. The committee will be chaired by Mr A. Sharawe and includes Attorney-General Amos Wako as well as the permanent secretaries in the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Provincial Administration, Internal Security, Immigration and Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
Muslims have also been promised special desks at Immigration Department offices to ease the issuance of passports. In the absence of precise figures, the population of Kenyan muslims is estimated at anywhere between 10 per cent and 30 per cent of the total. (The latter figure almost certainly is on the high side). National population censuses carried out every 10 years do not ask for information on religious affiliation or ethnicity.
The last time political attention was focussed so intently on Muslims was in 1991-92. During the growing battle for the return of multipartyism, the government of President Daniel Moi suddenly found itself faced with radicalised Muslim youths in Mombasa, a situation that was best exemplified by a hitherto unknown but fiery preacher, Sheikh Khalid Balala, a founder of the IPK. (He is a cousin of ODM's Najib Balala).
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