Yusuf’s victory marks grand entry of Muslims in city politics

By Billow Kerrow

For the large Muslim community in Nairobi, Yusuf Hassan’s win in the Kamukunji by-election was a sweet victory that gives them a foothold in city politics.

The community has MPs in the cities of Mombasa and Kisumu, and last month won the mayoral seat in Nakuru. But Hassan’s win this week marks a watershed in the community’s struggle to seek political identity and might in the nation’s capital and claim a stake in the control of the most important county.

For the Muslim community’s Somali population who occupy Eastleigh, the constituency’s most visible business district in Nairobi, Yusuf’s victory was a major statement that Somalis are not anybody’s guests in the city.

The community has often been victimised and unfairly targeted by those who are mesmerised by its economic progress in Eastleigh. Wikipedia cites Eastleigh as ‘a country within a country with its own economy on account of its robust business.’

Yet Somalis are not new emigrants in Eastleigh. They were settled there by the colonialists after the First World War. In her autobiography Out of Africa, Karen Blixen describes Eastleigh as a “dusty little town of Somalis built of wooden houses”. Often invited by her Somali head clerk from the Issak clan to arbitrate between their disputes, she describes the town’s narrow streets and admired the aromatic incense as she sipped sweet tea in their homes. And the name Eastleigh only came about after an RAF regiment from a London borough by that name established an air base there in early 1950s.

Yusuf’s PNU alliance mauled the energetic Ibrahim Ahmed alias ‘Johnny’ who fought gallantly under the ODM banner.

Johnny had forced the by-election after he brought a successful petition and was a favourite among majority of the Somalis. Being a young man born and bred in the city and with a passion for political leadership, he may be a force to reckon with in the near future.

Yusuf is a charismatic leader who oozes confidence and is equal to the task. As a leading activist during the days of Mwakenya and the second liberation, he understands the daunting challenges that face him in the few months he will represent the diverse interests of this cosmopolitan constituency.

In Eastleigh, the dilapidated infrastructure and the growing insecurity may be his greatest challenges. As the third largest business district in Nairobi after CBD and Westlands, residents will expect him to pursue the same level of services that the former two enjoy.

Residents believe the Government deliberately ignores Eastleigh because of the negative profiling of the area and its inhabitants. It has been wrongly tagged as the hub for al Shabaab and its wealth financed by pirates; others simply label it as a terrorist centre and a den for illicit activities.

The neighbouring Pumwani has serious housing problems. When some shanties were pulled down and the high-rise buildings put up, they were partly ‘grabbed’ by the rich, leaving many residents unhappy in the oldest slum in Nairobi. The persistent harassment of Muslims in Pumwani by anti-terrorism police is also a festering wound.

Recently, the rogue UN Monitoring Group on Somali cited the Riyadha Mosque in Pumwani, the second oldest in Nairobi after Jamia Mosque, as the centre of terrorist activities.

Yusuf served with the UN until recently and would be expected to advise his former colleagues to stop maligning Muslim institutions and their leaders on advice from nondescript consultants.

Nonetheless, he still has to worry about the sprawling Majengo and Muthurwa, and the famous Bahati and Shauri Moyo ‘mitaas’.

Above all, the old man has to put up with the city’s ‘sonkoist’ youth amidst the campaign to retain his seat for the next election. Good luck man!

 

The writer is a former MP  for Mandera Central and political economist