Residents
of Eastleigh, a largely Somali district of Nairobi, have suffered
reprisals from other Kenyans over previous terrorist attacks.
Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty
At a barbershop in Eastleigh, a densely populated neighbourhood
just east of central Nairobi, a man with a neat goatee, fair skin and
unblinking hazel eyes leans his head back into a sink as brown dye is
rinsed out of his hair.
Like most people in the area often known as Little Mogadishu, Abdul, 29, is Somali-Kenyan. And like many locals, he has grown increasingly angry at the events at the Westgate shopping centre, and the potential impact the four-day siege will have on his community.
"What happened in Westgate is terrible. The community in Eastleigh want to help – we have given food and supplies. But I think it is the police, not terrorists, who killed people," says Abdul.
"Al-Shabaab exist, but they are in Somalia, not here. This is a cover-up motivated by politics. I don't trust the authorities – I think they exploded everything in Westgate to destroy the evidence." From the other side of the salon, where he is shaving a client's head, Bashir chimes in: "The worst al-Shabaab can do is a suicide bombing – not something like this that goes on for days.
"Now they are blaming Somalis, when we are still not sure who these people are. People are mixing up Muslims with terrorists. You have to differentiate."
There is widespread distrust of the authorities in Eastleigh. Locals say the police have failed to investigate a string of bombings in the neighbourhood, which have killed and injured dozens.
Many believe the bombings were carried out by Somali militants – but Eastleigh residents have also suffered bloody reprisals from other Kenyans who blame the Somali community for the terrorist attacks. At a medical centre in the neighbourhood, the young receptionist dressed in a black hijab becomes agitated as she describes seeing police round up Somalis. She believes the arrests were linked to Westgate.
"When people saw the police coming, they were running away," says Naima. "How can they be going around arresting Somalis when we are not even sure if it was Somalis who attacked the place?"
Sitting next to her, Ilham, 25, who wears a green hijab, says she believes the gunmen who stormed Westgate were not members of al-Shabaab, and that the description of it as a terrorist attack is part of a state cover-up.
"The threat from al–Shabaab is being exaggerated," said Ilham. "There is nothing like al-Shabaab in Kenya. Al-Shabaab are taking responsibility to look bigger than they are."
"Business is booming in Eastleigh, and people don't like it," says Naima. "They want to target us and affect our business. This has to do with politics, not terrorism."
Despite its reputation as a slum, the tightly knit and entrepreneurial Somali community has become a trade hub. Eastleigh's wide avenues are overcrowded and dirty, with rubbish piled high at the roadside and filling puddles of stagnant water. But the area is also dotted with new, high-rise buildings. Ahmed Mohamed returned to Kenya after obtaining a degree in London, and now runs a security firm and an association representing 2,000 Somali-Kenyan business owners.
"People are coming from Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan to do business here," he says. "Somalis are natural entrepreneurs. It's in our DNA."
Many feel that resentment at Somali-Kenyans' success in business has led outsiders to scapegoat the community for Islamist violence.
Somali-Kenyans say they are routinely victimised by the Christian majority. Naima says that when she travelled to Kenya's Rift Valley she was subject to harassment and called names. "When I went to Rongai wearing [a hijab] they were pointing at me and calling me 'al-Shabaab'. When I go to a bus station, they will check me two or three times, but a Christian won't be checked at all. I am a Kenyan. Why would you do that? It is radicalising people."
Eastleigh has been the focus of repeated attacks. Last year six people were killed in a grenade attack on a minibus, which was followed by violence and looting. Somali-Kenyans were blamed for the blast, even though it happened within their own community. "We are naturally worried about retaliatory attacks," says Mohamed. "Every time something like this happens, we experience the backlash. This time we have donated food to the Kenyan Defence Force, to the fire brigade and the police, to show we are not part of the problem."
Local MP Yusuf Hassan, who was confined to a wheelchair after a bomb attack during general elections in March, says not enough has been done to strengthen relations with the Somali community.
"We have been assured by the leadership that ethnic profiling and collective punishment of Somalis is no longer acceptable, but the government should deal with this issue in a more systematic way," he says. "The majority of Kenyan people, they do not subscribe to that kind of mentality. But for a minority, whenever the terrorists are mentioned, the word 'Somali', the word 'Muslim', appears.
"In the past two years, there have been 11 bomb attacks in my constituency. Yet there have been no arrests, and not one single person brought to court. What does that tell you about the state of the investigations? "The government told us it was al-Shabaab and that that was the end of the story. It's not good enough."
Like most people in the area often known as Little Mogadishu, Abdul, 29, is Somali-Kenyan. And like many locals, he has grown increasingly angry at the events at the Westgate shopping centre, and the potential impact the four-day siege will have on his community.
"What happened in Westgate is terrible. The community in Eastleigh want to help – we have given food and supplies. But I think it is the police, not terrorists, who killed people," says Abdul.
"Al-Shabaab exist, but they are in Somalia, not here. This is a cover-up motivated by politics. I don't trust the authorities – I think they exploded everything in Westgate to destroy the evidence." From the other side of the salon, where he is shaving a client's head, Bashir chimes in: "The worst al-Shabaab can do is a suicide bombing – not something like this that goes on for days.
"Now they are blaming Somalis, when we are still not sure who these people are. People are mixing up Muslims with terrorists. You have to differentiate."
There is widespread distrust of the authorities in Eastleigh. Locals say the police have failed to investigate a string of bombings in the neighbourhood, which have killed and injured dozens.
Many believe the bombings were carried out by Somali militants – but Eastleigh residents have also suffered bloody reprisals from other Kenyans who blame the Somali community for the terrorist attacks. At a medical centre in the neighbourhood, the young receptionist dressed in a black hijab becomes agitated as she describes seeing police round up Somalis. She believes the arrests were linked to Westgate.
"When people saw the police coming, they were running away," says Naima. "How can they be going around arresting Somalis when we are not even sure if it was Somalis who attacked the place?"
Sitting next to her, Ilham, 25, who wears a green hijab, says she believes the gunmen who stormed Westgate were not members of al-Shabaab, and that the description of it as a terrorist attack is part of a state cover-up.
"The threat from al–Shabaab is being exaggerated," said Ilham. "There is nothing like al-Shabaab in Kenya. Al-Shabaab are taking responsibility to look bigger than they are."
"Business is booming in Eastleigh, and people don't like it," says Naima. "They want to target us and affect our business. This has to do with politics, not terrorism."
Despite its reputation as a slum, the tightly knit and entrepreneurial Somali community has become a trade hub. Eastleigh's wide avenues are overcrowded and dirty, with rubbish piled high at the roadside and filling puddles of stagnant water. But the area is also dotted with new, high-rise buildings. Ahmed Mohamed returned to Kenya after obtaining a degree in London, and now runs a security firm and an association representing 2,000 Somali-Kenyan business owners.
"People are coming from Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan to do business here," he says. "Somalis are natural entrepreneurs. It's in our DNA."
Many feel that resentment at Somali-Kenyans' success in business has led outsiders to scapegoat the community for Islamist violence.
Somali-Kenyans say they are routinely victimised by the Christian majority. Naima says that when she travelled to Kenya's Rift Valley she was subject to harassment and called names. "When I went to Rongai wearing [a hijab] they were pointing at me and calling me 'al-Shabaab'. When I go to a bus station, they will check me two or three times, but a Christian won't be checked at all. I am a Kenyan. Why would you do that? It is radicalising people."
Eastleigh has been the focus of repeated attacks. Last year six people were killed in a grenade attack on a minibus, which was followed by violence and looting. Somali-Kenyans were blamed for the blast, even though it happened within their own community. "We are naturally worried about retaliatory attacks," says Mohamed. "Every time something like this happens, we experience the backlash. This time we have donated food to the Kenyan Defence Force, to the fire brigade and the police, to show we are not part of the problem."
Local MP Yusuf Hassan, who was confined to a wheelchair after a bomb attack during general elections in March, says not enough has been done to strengthen relations with the Somali community.
"We have been assured by the leadership that ethnic profiling and collective punishment of Somalis is no longer acceptable, but the government should deal with this issue in a more systematic way," he says. "The majority of Kenyan people, they do not subscribe to that kind of mentality. But for a minority, whenever the terrorists are mentioned, the word 'Somali', the word 'Muslim', appears.
"In the past two years, there have been 11 bomb attacks in my constituency. Yet there have been no arrests, and not one single person brought to court. What does that tell you about the state of the investigations? "The government told us it was al-Shabaab and that that was the end of the story. It's not good enough."
