KHALID: Historical injustices at Coast shouldn't be used to cause violence in 2022

The six coastal counties are among those that have suffered historical injustices for years, including severe marginalisation.

This has led to slow development, especially in the education, land tenure and infrastructure sector, among others.

Poverty, cultural norms, gender discrimination, exclusion and other socioeconomic challenges have caused vulnerabilities that have led to engagement of youth in crime, violent extremism and other societal ills that could easily be avoided through empowerment. Inadequate understanding of the legal avenues of seeking redress has also escalated the rise of crime and secessionist ideologies.

Successive governments and politicians have over the years taken advantage of the region’s unresolved issues. In every election, politicians divide locals along religious and ethnic lines thus encouraging violence and mayhem.

Two weeks ago in Kilifi county, three individuals were lynched by a mob who accused them of attempting to kidnap children.

After follow up, it was confirmed that the real reason behind the attack was land feuds, which have been on going at the Coast for years on end without being resolved. Adversaries who were involved in land matters in the area killed the three. Several people have been arrested over the incident and are expected to face murder charges once investigations are complete.

Election of local leaders has also always been marred by public emotions and violence on historical injustices, including land, education and development.

We witnessed the worst post-election violence in the history of Kenya in 2007-08, when hundreds were killed and thousands internally displaced. To date, the violence remains a stark reminder of how the country can easily degenerate to chaos should we fail to heed the warning signs around elections.

While not in the magnitude witnessed in 2007-08, successive elections in 2013 and 2017 witnessed violence at the Coast, with secessionist calls taking centre stage. The fear is that the same calls are now being heard again in different parts.

Economic disenfranchisement has been another sticking historical injustice that has continued unabated. During the last three years, the region has seen dwindling economic fortunes with the government’s deliberate move to shift port operations from Mombasa to Nairobi and demand to have cargo only transported by the SGR.

With the port having been the economic backbone of the region, this single government move obliterated the economic hustle and bustle of all the six counties, rendering them unable to support their economic survival and taking the people to their knees with nothing to clutch on to.

Besides land and economic disenfranchisement, other historical injustices such as lack of investment in education in the region have also contributed to poor participation of locals in national issues. Until a few years ago, there was no public university in the region. Secondary schools were scarce and to date, certain constituencies have only one or two public primary schools.

Year after year, the Coast counties are on the tail end of national examination results and the government does little to improve their performance. Since independence, successive governments have invested little in supporting education in the region.

Presently, due to unresolved historical injustices, the Coast counties remain election violence hot spots and if nothing is done, politicians will continue polarising communities and leave them fighting before, during and after elections.

There is therefore need to reverse the trend by engaging communities, particularly youth, in sustained voter education and have them understand that elections are a democratic process about people and not politicians. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission should work with local communities to ensure historical injustice are not misused to fan political violence.

As it is impossible to satisfactorily address historical injustice before elections, efforts should now be made towards ensuring they are not used to mobilise locals into violence come 2022.

Since it is the same government that has tolerated the injustices, it cannot be expected to do anything about it. That leaves the faith community and civil society with the bulk of what needs to be done. These include efforts to narrow inter-religious and inter-ethnic divides that are always witnessed at the Coast of Kenya during elections.

The region and country in general are in need of new non-political leadership.