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| The Kenyan Coastal Scuffle Could Be the Tip of a Disillusionment Iceberg |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
The recently contained skirmishes at the Kenyan Coastal forest of Mulungunipa in Kwale District came at a time when Kenya's tourist sector was going through a difficult time, just months from the issuance of travel advisories by the American government on the country. The speed with which the Kenyan security machinery, currently led by the no-nonsense Major General Hussein Ali, moved in to counter the situation is highly commendable. Many, especially from the tourist industry, have expressed fear over the possible negative effects of the nipped chaos and animosity on the progress and development of an institution also recovering from a similar scenario barely a decade ago, when ethnic and regionally-inspired hate ogres reared their monster heads in the Kaya Bombo Forest and Likoni areas of Mombasa.
While many may have been quick to condemn both myopic and megalodramatic occurences, nobody has come up to address the pertinent concerns which may have led to the barbaric and savagery ventilation of apparent years of frustration and socioeconomic dereliction of the indigenous Coastal enclaves. The outcries, which were indeed warranted but unfortunately emerged as a mediocre mechanism of civic agitation, came at a time when Kenya was in a socioeconomic and political transition – a time when many of the Kenyan voters are begin to comprehend the power they wield.
It is an adamant fact that a paltry minority of the indigenous coastal dwellers own land in the region. Many wallow in abject poverty, dejection and negligence from policy makers who they elevate to positions of power and responsibility each election year to fight for their interests, but who discard them to the dogs of land ‘squatterliness’, who have an insignificant say on local natural resources and a squalid life of palm wine brewing. Despite the multibillion dollar tourist industry, natural resources and fishing industries existing at the Kenyan Coast, many of the coastals live in sprawling abodes, perpetually relegated to palm wine drinking and relentless waits for material and monetary tips from tourists with the grim possibility of seriously and concretely benefiting from the trickle-down effects of the three industries being nothing but ameliorated pipe dreams.
Policy makers have not bothered to fully and conclusively revive collapsed Kenya Cashew Nuts and Ramisi Sugar factories even as many of them cruise the region's hotels and resorts in posh limousines chaperoned by sleazy nights of carousing and revelry in a span of less than three years since being elected to power. The factories, which ceased operations during the previous government's socioeconomic and political misrule, left many of the area's youth reeling in unemployment and hopelessness.
Still, educational pursuits are wanting in the region where only a countable number patrol the corridors of higher learning institutions in Kenya and abroad. Women's rights are in jeopardy as early marriages of aspiring and school-going girls still pervade the coastal society. Gender violence against women is a sore within the region's communities with women still downtrodden to the mythical kitchen. The coconut industry, which can be vastly exploited to produce such commodities as cocopeat medium and other products, which Kenya still imports, is in neglect. Mineral resources in the region are exploited by foreigners from the international community with inconsiderable socioeconomic gain by the locals.
While the government may shift blame to the effect that the inequitable resource distribution is an inheritance from the previous rulers, there is no excuse for making a negligible progress almost three years later after being elected. Many have pointed towards the bickering in the government as a pointer to the small development progress report, while yet others have pointed to the fact that a good number of the current rulers were in the formerly misruling governments. This, however, cannot be an acceptable excuse as the current government was elected on a platform of promises of magnanimous socioeconomic progress.
However, the salient issue which seems to perturb the coastal indigenous is that many of them feeling shortchanged by policy makers and view themselves as squatters in their own land, while foreigners go and acquire large tracts and harvest the natural resources leaving meager input to the region's development prospects. A walk through Kwale District or any of the villages in the coastal environs reveal a mass of 'makuti' (coconut leaves) thatched mud structures strewn among coconut trees and sparsely distributed vegetation. With accusations that many of the area's Members of Parliament are yet to account for their use of the Constituency Development, this begs the question as to whether they really care about the region's socioeconomic welfare even as they perpetually voice their neglect by major policy players.
The coastal quandary, in as much as it warrants agitation and socioeconomic redress, should be handled with care and the seriousness it deserves. Let the coastal indigenous know that violence is never the solution to issues. History has proven that. Let them know that while apparently trying to lobby for reforms via violence, they may just destroy the fabric of the national cake they are purportedly trying to protect. Let them be aware that all Kenyans have the right to live and work in any part of Kenya of which the coastal region is encompassed.
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Antony Felix O. Simbowo
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