Sultan of Oman returns to haunt land occupants in Mombasa

Residents of Mwembe Kuku, Mombasa County, protest yesterday against the return of descendants of the Oman Arabs who have threatened to kick them out of their residential houses if they will not buy the land at Sh8 million each. [PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD]

Thousands of tenants in Mombasa are in a panic after descendants of the Sultan of Zanzibar returned from Oman and threatened to evict them from land on which they have built houses.

Until around 1900, the Kenyan coastal strip was ruled by the Sultan of Zanzibar who descended from Oman. In 1825, the Sultan of Oman, Said Sayyid, migrated to Zanzibar from where he ruled his empire, including Kenyan coastal possessions. The sultan’s descendants went on to acquire vast swathes of land in coastal Kenya, which they still own.