A Somalia refugee named Mohamed drinks tea outside an Eastleigh cafe at dusk. Jason Patinkin
Nicknamed ‘Little Mogadishu,’ Eastleigh is a refugee haven for Somalis, Ethiopians, and some dozen other African nationalities. In recent years it has also become a unique import-export commercial hub, one now in jeopardy as Kenya conducts crackdowns and deportations on foreigners to root-out tackle suspected Al Shabab radicals.
How Kenya’s ‘war on terror’ is disrupting a thriving Nairobi district.
Shoppers stroll First Avenue in Eastleigh, a neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, also known as ‘Little Mogadishu’ because it is home to immigrants from Somalia. Jason Patinkin
NAIROBI, KENYA — Eastleigh, a mass of crowds and color in the heart of Kenya’s capital, is like no other neighborhood in Nairobi.
Nicknamed “Little Mogadishu,” it has bloomed in the past decade into one of East Africa’s most vibrant commercial centers, built mostly by refugees from Somalia who came here after that country collapsed in the 1990s.
While Eastleigh is jammed with refugees from the Horn of Africa, it is no Nairobi ghetto: Bulk imports of textiles, car parts, electronics, and veterinary supplies – often tax free – come here from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and are sold to merchants who trek in from all over East and Central Africa.
Moreover, at the muezzin’s dusk call to prayer, people don’t retreat to homes behind razor-wire-topped walls, the way much of Nairobi’s population does each evening.
Instead, the place bustles. Eastleigh residents shop at night markets or sip camel-milk tea in sidewalk cafes, where one is more likely to hear Somali or Arabic than Swahili or English, Kenya’s national languages.
Yet in recent months, this sometime paradise for refugees has become hostile to outsiders. As Kenya cracks down on Al Shabab terrorists from Somalia following a devastating attack on the posh Nairobi Westgate mall last fall, Eastleigh residents are caught in the middle. Just as Little Mogadishu and its new glass-and-concrete high-rises are gaining a reputation as a story of progress and success, a cosmopolitan haven on the Horn, many refugees and immigrants are suddenly leaving. Read more…
Police check IDs of ethnic Somalis in Eastleigh. Photo by Jason Patinkin
Eastleigh, a bustling business district in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, is home to thousands of ethnic Somalis—both Kenyan citizens as well as refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia. Every time I visit Eastleigh, I want to come back for the colorful street scene, the outdoor cafes, the late night shisha bars, and heaping plates of rice and camel meat. But ever since Kenya invaded Somalia in 2011 to fight Al Shabaab militants, Eastleigh has become synonymous with terror. Read more…
In this Tuesday Oct. 29, 2013 file photo, Abubakar Shariff Ahmedsits in his office in Mombasa, Kenya. AP Photo/Jason Straziuso, File
Nairobi, Kenya — Kenya’s most prominent radical Muslim was gunned down Tuesday night near the coastal city of Mombasa amid escalating violence between government security forces and Muslim youths – raising fears of retaliation and further tension.
Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, an avowed jihadist known popularly as Makaburi, which means graveyard in Swahili, was shot dead at 6:30 p.m. outside a prison where he reported for a scheduled court appearance. Mr. Ahmed is the sixth and highest-profile Muslim cleric to be killed in suspicious circumstances on Kenya’s coast in the past few years. He was under sanctions from the UN Security Council that included a travel ban and an asset freeze for allegedly supporting terrorism.
The killing of Ahmed comes as the government has moved to curb or even preempt terrorism through round-ups and crackdowns. It adds to what seems a circular or “tit-for-tat” reaction in recent weeks between security forces and Muslims and ethnic Somalis. Read more…
With ambient music playing in the background, a dedicated group of yogis breathed in unison, concentrating intently on the finer details of the downward dog. Sweat dripped from their faces as the teacher guided them through a series of intricate asanas – body positions – correcting stray limbs and encouraging complete focus. But rather than a plush yoga studio with soft mats and air conditioning, the group of teenagers were working out in the concrete courtyard of a Nairobi orphanage, under the tuition of a dreadlocked instructor, Bernard Gitonga. Read more…
Published in ThinkAfricaPress: Last Sunday, a bomb blast on a public minibus left seven dead and scores wounded in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood. The attack, blamed on the Islamist Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab, triggered conflict between Eastleigh’s Somali immigrants and their Kenyan neighbours.
For two days, rioting youths from nearby slums targeted ethnic Somalis, looting homes and fighting running street battles with police. After the tear gas settled, enterprising locals patched their broken windows with cardboard and sold shoes and leather jackets by the shells of shattered cars, but tensions continued to simmer. Read more…
I went to Eastleigh, Nairobi just as riots were ending after a bombing on a public minibus killed at least 7 people. There was still sporadic gunfire and occasional rock throwing, and ethnic Somalis were fleeing for fear of further attacks on them by “Kenyans,” since the bombing was blamed on Al-Shabbab. One photo of mine was featured on Right Now I/O, which is actually quite a cool website.
New piece in GlobalPost‘s Ground Truth blog.
“It came time to pray for the children and we heard a bang,” said Paris Gikonyo, who was attending services at St. Polycarp Church in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighborhood when a bomb exploded in the adjacent Sunday school. “I had two grandchildren in there, so I rushed over. Everyone ran over to save the children.” Read more…
Jason Patinkin 