KENYA-POLITICS: Asian Community Seeks to Set the Record Straight

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Aug 5 1996 (IPS) - A growing anti-Asian sentiment among politicians here has moved a group of Kenyan Asians to come together to respond to set the record straight on their presence in the East African nation.

The group, known as the Eastern Action Club for Africa (EACA), has been placing advertisements in local newspapers to emphasise the role Kenya’s Asian community has been playing in the economic development of the country. It aims to follow this up with a book highlighting the role of Asians in Kenya’s independence struggle over three decades ago.

The EACA’s reactions followed statements in May by leading opposition politician, Kenneth Matiba, who lashed out at what he saw as the domination of Kenya’s economy by Asians, who are the descendants of people brought to East Africa by the British in the 19th century to build a railway linking the countries of the region.

“You just drive around Nairobi and what you see is that all the shops are owned by Asians,” he said. “You go to Mombasa, all the shops are owned by Asians. This has created a very serious situation where indigenous Kenyans think they have become second- class citizens in their own country.”

Matiba, whose feelings were echoed by colleagues from other parties, warned that unless the anomalies were addressed, Kenya was sitting on a time bomb whose explosion could be disastrous.

EACA Chairman Amin Gwaderi countered Matiba’s claims.

“To put matters into perspective, the total population of the Asians in Kenya is less than 70,000,” Gwaderi told IPS. “This mere 0.27 percent of the entire population is said to be responsible for the most significant contribution to the economy.

“This 0.27 percent creates employment, pays the majority of the taxes and anchors the foreign exchange earnings of Kenya. Why then is it perceived as a threat to the economy by misguided politicians?”

A recent survey by Dr. David Himbra, a Nairobi-based Rwandese economist, shows that in the manufacturing sector, for example, Kenyan Asians own 73 percent of firms, providing jobs for thousands of other Kenyans.

“These figures show beyond all reasonable doubt that the Kenyan Asians have always had full confidence in the future of their country and so invested in its industry,” the EACA stated in an advertisement placed in July in the ‘East African Standard’, a local newspaper.

Gwaderi, himself a businessman, said the Asian community contributed up to 80 percent of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“I think Mr. Matiba is playing to the gallery,” he charged. “The problem is 70,000 Asians are not meaningful in terms of votes for him. But the vote of the majority of Kenyans, if they are instigated in the right way, could possibly be a larger contribution to him getting in the presidency.”

Matiba, head of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD-Asili), has made the Asian issue a key plank in his party’s platform for elections due next year.

According to Gwaderi, the growing anti-Asian feeling is already hampering development efforts in Kenya. “I think a lot of Asians are beginning to sit on the fence again because of the type of remarks Mr. Matiba makes,” he said.

During a four-day state visit here late last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urged Kenyan politicians to drop their anti-Asian rhetoric. “Expelling Asians is not a solution but a destructive measure,” he said. “Those who advocate such measures are simple-minded.”

Asians have contributed considerably to East Africa’s economy, Museveni said, adding: “We should instead encourage more to come. After all, they bring money and create employment and they don’t take away anything from our region.”

Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin forced about 60,000 Asians to leave Uganda in 1972, charging that they had been milking its economy. Museveni’s government has been encouraging them to return and many have gone back to Uganda from Britain, Canada and the United States to reclaim their properties, which had been seized after their departure.

During a speech made in June, Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi condemned the verbal attacks against Asians as racist. Then, on another occasion, he urged Asian business people to contribute generously to a youth development programme launched by the ruling party, calling on them to donate the equivalent of at least 2,000 U.S. dollars each.

Gwaderi believes that joint-venture projects could help ease some of the tension between Africans and Asians in Kenya. “I think the focus should be on development of the African businessmen, which is really one of the biggest weaknesses we’ve had,” he said.

But not all members of the Asian community like the idea of joint ventures. Gregory da Silva, a former accountant with the now defunct East African Community, says past experience has made him wary. “If I am to enter into partnership with an African, I will think twice,” he tells IPS, “unless, of course, he comes along with capital.

Da Silva, who is 58, says he has entered into four joint ventures with Africans over the past 27 years and that all have collapsed. “The Africans I worked with didn’t want to work,” he charges. “They only liked easy money.

“But that does not mean that all Africans are bad business people. I could have gone into business with an Asian and still be run down.”

Da Silva also noted that the belief among black Kenyans that all Asians are wealthy was misguided. “Only very few are rich,” he says. “The majority are poor. They work hard, very hard, for what they earn.”

KENYA-POLITICS: Asian Community Seeks to Set the Record Straight

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Aug 5 1996 (IPS) - A growing anti-Asian sentiment among politicians here has moved a group of Kenyan Asians to come together to respond to set the record straight on their presence in the East African nation.
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