https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4070-9482
![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kenya’s coastal region saw the rise of Islamist activism(s). Revisiting this rise, this article traces the history of two contrasting politico-religious groups seeking to address the historical marginalisation of Kenyan Muslim communities: the Mombasa-based Islamic Party of Kenya (IPK) and the southern coastal Ansar Sunnah movement. While the IPK accepted the Kenyan nation-state and sought to empower Kenya’s Muslim minority via the electoral process, the ‘Ansaris’ promoted a rejectionist agenda fundamentally opposed to democracy and the conventional state. Re-investigating the origins and the evolution of these two antithetical projects, our article provides two fieldwork-based contributions, drawing on key informant interviews. First, we tackle several historiographically unsettled questions concerning the biographies of prominent politico-religious entrepreneurs like Khalid Balala and Abdulaziz Rimo. Second, we provide a counterpoint to a growing body of literature focussing on the gradual emergence of a coastal jihadist network. While not denying the significance of this network, we show that the local rise of jihadism has been accompanied by equally important processes of moderation away from violence and exclusivism. Overall, our article therefore underlines the multi-facetted and non-linear dynamics of Islamist activism in coastal Kenya and the wider East African Region.
Acknowledgements
This work is part of the research project ‘Party competition and collective Jihadist radicalization in Sub-Saharan Africa’ which was funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF) 2020-2022.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See, for example, BBC, “Uganda's Kampala Bombings: Muslim Cleric Accused of Jihadist Links Shot Dead”, 18 November 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59337953; The Economist, “Mozambique’s Mysterious Conflict Is Intensifying”, 2 April 2020, https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/04/02/mozambiques-mysterious-conflict-is-intensifying; The New York Times, “Grenade Attack in Kenya Kills Police Officer”, 28 August 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/world/africa/grenade-attack-in-kenya-kills-police-officer-as-riots-rage.html.
2 Morier-Genoud, “The Jihadi Insurgency in Mozambique”; Nsobya, “Uganda’s Militant Islamic Movement”.
3 Hansen, Horn, Sahel and Rift, 143-63.
4 Becker, “The History of Islam”, 2.
5 Gilsaa, Muslim Politics in Tanzania, 297-308; Kayunga, “Islamic Fundamentalism in Uganda”.
6 Chesworth, “Fundamentalism and Outreach Strategies”, 167; Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, “Kenya: 1 Full Article Published by Ansar Muslim Youth Organization, P.O. Box 83801 Mombasa”, 1 June 1990, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ab996c.htm.
7 Daily Nation, “Sheikh Given Six Years for Sedition”, 15 February 1990, p. 3.
8 Interview with Khalid Balala, Mombasa, 24 March 2022.
9 Islamism can be meaningfully defined as the activism of socio-political movements and organisations ‘that use their interpretation of Islamic principles as their reference point and that seek to apply these principles to public life.’ Matesan, “Grievances and Fears”, 44-45.
10 Ansar Sunnah can be translated as ‘group of defenders of the Sunnah’.
11 See, for example, Saalfeld, “Inter-Secular Party Competition”; Chome, “From Islamic Reform to Muslim Activism”; Elischer, “’Partisan Politics’”; Ndzovu, “Kenya’s Jihadi Clerics”; Mwakimako and Willis, Islam, Politics, and Violence.
12 Mwakimako and Willis, Islam, Politics, and Violence, 9.
13 Mraja, “The Reform Ideas”; Pouwels, “Sh. al-Amin B. Ali Mazrui”.
14 Importantly, scholars like Mazrui and Farsy did not challenge the mwalidi celebrations in general but only specific features such as the use of drums in the mosque space or excessive spending during the celebrations. See Kresse, “Debating Maulidi”.
15 Chome, “From Islamic Reform to Muslim Activism”, 537-39.
16 Mraja, “The Reform Ideas”, 271.
17 Ndaro, “Sheikh Abd Ul Aziz Rimo”, 57.
18 Ibid., 57.
19 Zitzmann, Micro-Mobilization to Islamist Militancy, 95.
20 Ndaro, “Sheikh Abd Ul Aziz Rimo”, 71; Interview with Digo Madinah graduate, Ukunda, 2 March 2022; Interview with former Rimo student, Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
21 Zitzmann, Micro-mobilization to Islamist Militancy, 95.
22 Klaus, “Contentious Land Narratives”, 54.
23 Ibid.; Saalfeld “Between grassroots contention and elite manoeuvring”.
24 Interview with Digo Madinah graduate, Ukunda, 2 March 2022; Interview with former Rimo student, Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
25 Interview with Digo Madinah graduate, Ukunda, 2 March 2022.
26 Interview with former Rimo student, Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
27 The Salafi Group that Commands Right and Forbids Wrong.
28 Hegghammer and Lacroix, “Rejectionist Islamism”, 104.
29 Chome, “From Islamic Reform to Muslim Activism”, 539-40.
30 Kresse, “‘Swahili Enlightenment’”.
31 Swaleh, “Islamic Proselytising”, 413-16; Interview with Digo Madinah graduate, Ukunda, 2 March 2022.
32 Barkan, “Kenya”.
33 Daily Nation, “Sheikh Given Six Years for Sedition”, 15 February 1990, p. 3.
34 Gilsaa, Muslim Politics in Tanzania, 200.
35 In January 1992, several of the intelligentsia activists played a leading role in the occupation of the headquarters of the Baraza Kuu la Waislam wa Tanzania (National Muslim Council of Tanzania). Gilsaa, Muslim Politics in Tanzania, 297-308.
36 Østebø and Shemsedin, “Ethiopian Muslims”.
37 Ibid., 243.
38 Online interview with Abdulrahman Wandati, 27 March 2022.
39 Ibid; Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022.
40 Cruise O’Brien, “Coping with the Christian”, 105-6; Online interview with Abdulrahman Wandati, 27 March 2022; Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022.
41 Online interview with Abdulrahman Wandati, 27 March 2022; Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022; Interview with former IPK activist Khelef Khalifa, Mombasa, 7 March 2022.
42 Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022, Interview with former IPK Chairman Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, Mombasa, 23 March 2022.
43 Online interview with Abdulrahman Wandati, 27 March 2022; Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022; Chesworth, “Fundamentalism and Outreach Strategies”, 182. For more information on Malik’s role in Tanzania see Gilsaa, Muslim Politics in Tanzania, 187-225.
44 Gilsaa, Muslim Politics in Tanzania, 198.
45 Online interview with Abdulrahman Wandati, 27 March 2022.
46 Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022; Interview with former IPK activist Khelef Khalif, Mombasa, 7 March 2022, Online interview with Abdulrahman Wandati, 27 March 2022.
47 Bakari, “A Place at the Table”, 23.
48 Daily Nation, “Kenyans Ignore Boycott Call”, 2 June 1992, p. 2.
49 Ndzovu, Muslims in Kenyan Politics, 87-88.
50 Oded, Islam & Politics, 149-62.
51 Interview with Khalid Balala, Mombasa, 24 March 2022.
52 Oded, Islam & Politics, 149.
53 Ibid., 149-50.
54 See, for example, Chome, “Gaidi Mtaani, Part 1: The Road to Somalia”, Down River Road, 21 June 2021, https://downriverroad.org/2021/06/21/ngalachome-gaidi-mtaani-part-1-the-road-to-somalia/; Chande, “Radicalism and Reform”, 352; Oded, Islam & Politics, 149.
55 Interview with Khalid Balala, Mombasa, 24 March 2022. The claim that Balala studied at a Saudi university was first questioned by Mohammed Bakari. Bakari, “A Place at the Table”, 30.
56 Interview with Khalid Balala, Mombasa, 24 March 2022; Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022.
57 Larkin, “Ahmed Deedat”, 106.
58 Sadouni, “Ahmed Deedat”.
59 Larkin “Ahmed Deedat”.
60 Gilsaa, Muslim Politics in Tanzania, 274-93.
61 Ibid, 290-93.
62 Interview with Khalid Balala, Mombasa, 24 March 2022; Amnesty International, “UA 264/92 – Kenya: Legal Concern / Possible Death Penalty: Sheikh Khalid Salim Balala”, 11 August 1992, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr32/009/1992/en/.
63 Bakari, “Muslims and the Politics of Change”, 246; Oded, Islam & Politics, 135.
64 Huma Rights Watch, “Playing with Fire”, 22-23; Oded, Islam & Politics, 155-59.
65 Oded, Islam & Politics, 149-62.
66 Ibid.
67 Kenya Times, “Balala: I Respect Moi”, 21 May 1993, https://ifrapressarch.nakalona.fr/items/show/8170.
68 Khelef A. Khalifa, “Principles of Democratic Leadership”, The Weekly Review, 17 September 1993.
69 Quoted in Daily Nation, “Koran Tutors Disown Preacher”, 7 July 1992, p. 2.
70 Daily Nation, “IPK Warns KANU Over Violence”, 21 December 1992, p. 32.
71 Khelef A. Khalifa, “Principles of Democratic Leadership”, The Weekly Review, 17 September 1993, as published in Oded, Islam & Politics, 190.
72 Elischer, Salafism and Political Order, 153.
73 Bryden and Bahra, “East Africa’s Terrorist Triple Helix”, 2.
74 Kadara Swaleh, “The Radicalization of Sheikh Aboud Rogo”, 4. There have recently been claims that Aboud Rogo was a student of Abdulaziz Rimo. These claims were denounced by all the former Rimo students interviewed by the authors.
75 Mutonya Njuguna, “IPK, UMA Disown Balala Over ‘Army’”, Daily Nation, 11 July 1994, p. 32.
76 Interviews with Khalid Balala, Mombasa, 24 March 2022; Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022.
77 Chome, “From Islamic Reform to Muslim Activism”, 548; US Embassy/Kenya, “Kenya Coast: Failing to Get our Message out,” 1 June 2021, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05DARESSALAAM1015_a.html; Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022.
78 See, for example, Amnesty International, Horn of Africa.
79 See Ngala Chome, “Portrait of an Insurgent”, New African, April 2016.
80 These jihadist preachers, most of whom were extrajudicially assassinated in the early 2010s, are Abubakar Shariff “Makaburi”, Mohammed Kassim, Ibrahim “Rogo” Omar, Samir Khan, Ahmed Iman Ali and Ramadhan Kufungwa.
81 Wolf, “Contemporary Politics”; Oded, Islam & Politics, 149-62.
82 Philemon Kemboi, “Who is Omar Mwinyi?”, Hivisasa, 8 July 2016, https://hivisasa.com/posts/who-is-omar-mwinyi; Bakari, “A Place at the Table”, 23.
83 While Wandati co-founded the Muslim Consultative Council, Khalifa assumed the leadership of the organisation Muslims for Human Rights.
84 Interview with former IPK activist Mohammed Mraja, Tiwi, 2 March 2022; Interview with former IPK Chairman Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, Mombasa, 23 March 2022.
85 Chome, “From Islamic Reform to Muslim Activism”, 543.
86 Ibid., 543.
87 Interview with Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, Mombasa, 23 March 2022.
88 Chome, “Eastern Africa’s Regional Extremist Threat”, 11; Ndzovu, “Kenya’s Jihadi Clerics”, 364.
89 Elischer, Salafism and Political Order, 151; Zitzmann, Micro-Mobilization to Islamist Militancy, 96.
90 Interview with Abubakar Awadh, Mombasa, 9 March 2022; Interview with former IPK activist Khelef Khalifa, Mombasa, 7 March 2022; Interview with former IPK activist Mohammed Mraja, Tiwi, 2 March 2022.
91 Interview with former Rimo student (2), Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
92 Zitzmann, Micro-Mobilization to Islamist Militancy, 212.
93 Interview with former IPK activist Mohammed Mraja, Tiwi, 2 March 2022.
94 Daniel Wesangula, “The Unseen War Part 2: Ukunda’s Dance With Radicalisation”, 25 February 2019, https://danielwesangula.wordpress.com/2019/02/25/the-unseen-war-part/. According to Wesangula, the police was looking for a fugitive named Ramadan Athman who was allegedly facing assault charges.
95 Interview with former Rimo student (2), Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
96 Ahmednasir Abdullahi, “Why I Believe Samir Khan Died in Police Hands”, The Nation, 4 July 2020, https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/opinion/why-i-believe-samir-khan-died-in-police-hands--809112. The dispute appears to have its origins in the 1970s when the Kenyan state refused to recognise the acquisition of a large plot nearby Ukunda made by Samir Khan’s father.
97 Interview with former Rimo student (2), Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
98 Several of Khan’s sermons can be accessed via Youtube. See, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnblKvG0_U.
99 Interview with former Rimo student (2), Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
100 Shaban Omar, “Kwale Leads Coast in Extrajudicial Killings, Say Rights Activists”, The Star, 31 August 2020, https://www.the-star.co.ke/counties/coast/2020-08-31-kwale-leads-coast-in-extrajudicial-killings-say-rights-activists/; Cyrus Ombati, “Two Minors, Terror Suspect Killed in Kwale Police Raid”, The Standard, 30 May 2020, https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/coast/article/2001373305/two-minors-terror-suspect-killed-in-kwale-police-raid; Nicky Gitonga, “Two Men Killed by Unknown Assailants in Kwale”, Citizen Digital, 11 August 2019, https://www.citizen.digital/news/two-men-killed-by-unknown-assailants-in-kwale-268662.
101 Interview with former Rimo student (1), Ukunda, 2 March 2022.
102 Interview with former Rimo student (2), Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
103 See, for example, Moses Baya, “MRC Spokesman Surrenders to Police”, The Standard, 8 October 2012, https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/coast/article/2000067929/mrc-spokesman-surrenders-to-police.
104 Interview with former IPK activist Mohammed Mraja, Tiwi, 2 March 2022.
105 Zitzmann, Micro-mobilization to Islamist Militancy, 212.
106 Interview with Muslim NGO representative from Kwale, Mombasa, 14 March 2022.
107 Ndaro, “Sheikh Abd Ul Aziz Rimo”, 48; Interview with Muslim NGO representative from Kwale, Mombasa, 14 March 2022.
108 Interview with former Rimo student (2), Ukunda, 9 March 2022.
109 See, for example, Saalfeld, “Inter-Secular Party Competition”; Chome, “From Islamic Reform to Muslim Activism”, Elischer, “’Partisan Politics’”; Ndzovu, “Kenya’s Jihadi Clerics”, Mwakimako and Willis, Islam, Politics, and Violence
110 On the Ahl al Sunna network see Bonate, “Muslim Religious Leadership”, 640.
111 Bofin, “Tanzania and the Political Containment of Terror”, Hudson Institute, 26 April 2022, https://www.hudson.org/research/17795-tanzania-and-the-political-containment-of-terror; Interview with former IPK activist Mohammed Mraja, Tiwi, 2 March 2022; Interview with Digo Madinah graduate, Ukunda, 2 March 2022.