In October 1961, the tension on the coast was palpable.
Shops were closed; inland natives who had moved to the Coast threatened Arab traders to close their shops whenever the commissioners visited. At least 17 arrests were recorded in that period. By now, the entire country looked at the Mwambao activists as opponents of “progress and independence”. Anti-Mwambao rhetoric persisted. By this time, the Sultanate’s administrative powers had greatly dwindled, though its symbols dotted several places on the coast.
The Coastal People’s Party then took up the role of the defender of the Islamic faith. Their assertion was that self-rule would deal a major blow to the faith and go against the provisions of the 1895 treaty that stated that Islam would remain the public and established creed, that Sharia law would be maintained and that the Kadhi Courts would adjudicate personal Islamic matters.
A man walks next to a wall in Likoni, Mombasa County, with the words ‘Hatupigi kura pwani, pwani si Kenya’ (There will be no election in Coast as it is not part of Kenya) which was a slogan used by a secessionist movement.
At one time during one of the Robertson Commission hearings, Chief Johnson Mwero of Kalaloni, Mariakani Location, Kwale District, dismissed the Swahili claims to the coast as illegitimate, on the grounds that racial impurity destroyed their “nativeness”.
“Their mothers were African and fathers were some Arabs, some Indians, including Pakistanis, and others Chinese and such. Could a young ‘coloured’ in South Africa, for instance, who does not even know his father, claim more birth right than a ZULU; or an Anglo-Indian in India more than a typical Hindu?” he posed before the commission on August 14, 1961.
To their defence, Mwambao proponents insisted that they were also natives to the coast
“We have the right to be here. … The date on our door is 275 years ago, the date of our house. … Without a doubt this is my home,” an individual identified as Shamsa Muhamad Muhashamy told the commission.
They also argued that the independent government would abolish the gains and teachings of Islam on the Coast.
“If Britain left Africa, the Kenyan government will neither safeguard our customs or our religion, which will be interfered with. Ngala (Ronald Ngala) has stated he will pull down our mosques and not allow our fasting as required by our religion after their independence,” the submission was recorded by F. Athman and OB Bashikh on August 22, 1963.
Whereas the Mwambao activists’ sentiments heavily relied on defending the Islamic faith, Christians waxed lyrical about the Arabs’ appalling history. They used their schools to indoctrinate their children and portrayed Arabs as slave traders whom Europeans removed from power for the benefit of Africans. They also said that Arabs would continue with the trade if left to have their own state.
Unknown to the two clashing sides, Kenya’s Governor Renison had charged the Treasury in 1960, after consulting with the Colonial Office, to consider to what extent the protectorate (the coastal strip) could be a viable entity, should it become an autonomous province. The Treasury established that the protectorate was not viable.
On June 10, 1960, the Robertson Commission found a shortfall of 955,000 British pounds between revenue and expenditure in the coastal strip. This further corroborated the initial, though not voiced, belief that the coastal strip could not sustain itself as a sovereign entity without inland Kenya.
A membership card of the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC).
Another big blow befell the Kenyan Arabs and Swahili after the Sultan of Zanzibar withdrew his support for their claims regarding their sovereignty. The agitated lot, self-professed citizens of the Sultanate, found themselves alone, without their traditional ruler. Previously, they had made it known that they only had two sovereigns – the Sultan and the Queen of England. Now, without the Sultan’s blessings, they were effectively subjects of the British system.
The Sultan’s withdrawal happened gently. First, in April 1960, the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) broke off its support for Mwambao and its demands that the coast be unified with Zanzibar.
A police officer displays a flag which was recovered during a crackdown at Markaz Mosque in Diani, Kwale County.
A year later, Zanzibar’s Sultan Abdallah bin Khalifa agreed to a consensus of non-interference. The Sultan was himself battling the anti-Arabs riots in Zanzibar in June 1961. Still, Mwambao agents travelled to Zanzibar to persuade the Sultan to have the Kenyan coast under his rule.
In March and April 1962, the Coastal Strip Conference was held at Lancaster House. Representing the coastal people were Abduallahi Nassir and Omar Bassadiq, under the Mwambao United Front. The two fiercely opposed the entails of the meeting and effectively refused to discuss “any proposal for the absorption of our territory into a Kenya under a unitary government”.
The pair did not even sign the conference’s published statement. They came back to Kenya, quit politics and left Mombasa to pursue careers. Nassir relocated to Nairobi while Bassadiq left for Jeddah. The two were branded “traitors who sold the Coast to Kenya” by the coast dwellers.
A year later, ZNP Prime Minister Mohamed Shamte politely explained to the Tamim (leader) of Mombasa “that there was nothing more Zanzibar could do for Mwambao”.
On October 8, 1963, the coastal protectorate was simply transferred to Kenya (no payment was made and if it was, it was not recorded) in an agreement between Colonial Secretary Duncan Sandys, Sultan Seyyid Jamshid bin Abdula, Kenya Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta, and Zanzibar Prime Minister Mohammed Shamte.
The Robertson Commission also concluded that the Kenyan colony (mainland) and the protectorate (the coastal strip) be united into a single nation state led by winners of elections.
The abrogation of the 1895 treaty came three days after the signing of letters by Kenyatta and Shamte on October 5. The agreement guaranteed five safeguards for the Sultan’s subjects in the coastal strip: the free exercise and preservation of Islamic worship, the retention of Kadhi jurisdiction over Muslim personal status matters, the appointment of Muslim administrators in predominantly Muslim areas, and Arabic instruction for Muslims.
There were hushed whispers that Governor Renison allegedly sold the Sultan’s coastal rights to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in exchange for the latter’s pledge not to expropriate the white settler lands by unhappy Coastal dwellers.
Despite the safeguards in the abrogation of the 1895 treaty, inland people soon filled the coastal area, the population influx resulting in pressure on natural resources with land the topmost valuable resource. Islamic schools were not included in the Ministry of Education’s budget.
By the 1980s, political patronage determined land access, further widening the coastal squatter problem. This exacerbated the tensions between coastal folks and the upcountry immigrants.
This matter was not dealt with, and by the late 1990s, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) was formed and started staging attacks on “outsiders” found in the Coast region. This rebel group orchestrated the attack of a police station in Likoni in 1997, killed six officers and stole 40 guns.
What these militants fail to understand is that by one British expediency – the 1895 treaty – they summoned their symbolic strength by flying the Sultan’s flag, and by another British expediency, their status as a sovereign entity was undone by the abrogation of that treaty and adherence to the Robertson Commission’s conclusions.
To date, Kenyan security agencies are always on the hunt for members of this separatist group that resurfaces once in a while with their famed chant “Pwani si Kenya”. BY DAILY NATION