Violence erupted on Kenya’s coast on August 13, 1997, launching weeks of terror in what had been a quiet resort area. Using the cover of automatic guns wielded by outsiders, local raiders carrying traditional weapons attacked a police station and a police post at the ferry in Likoni, which connects Likoni to Mombasa island. The raiders killed six officers and stole more than forty guns, then proceeded to carry out a violent rampage in the area,
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[li]burning market kiosks, office buildings, and [/li][li]killing and maiming people after identifying them as non-locals or people from “up-country.” [/li][/ul]
Many of their targets belonged to the Luo, Luhya, or Kikuyu communities, as well as the Kamba. Some two hundred raiders participated in the attack, by the raiders’ own count. When security forces finally appeared the following morning, the raiders retreated to hiding places in the forests. From these bases, they launched more attacks in subsequent days and engaged in sporadic firefights with security forces. The violence continued for several weeks, with particularly bold attacks taking place again in September, before they subsided. Intermittent raids continued well into November 1997 and some raiders were active through December of the following year.
Besides being perceived as outsiders, these communities constituted the majority of the opposition electorate. The KANU regime used these clashes to put them in check. The government had prior knowledge of the whole scenario. This can be attested to by confessions from police officers in the Akiwumi Report. Most of the leaders involved in the planning and orchestration of the killing of more than 100 people are today’s recycled leaders operating on either side of the government.
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These tactics of have been used by successive political regimes and soon we will hear leaflets being thrown everywhere ooh, this community leave this area, ooh.
Jubilee is banking on evidence of development backed by firm adherence to law and order.
On the opposite corner is ODM (no longer CORD!!) stoking hatred snd resentment by claiming that developments at the Coast are supposed to disenfrachise the so-called indigenous people.
That amateurish attack on the police yesterday is the result of Joho and Raila’s utterances in the past week; poor, ill-equipped peasants acting on the words of a failed politician and his bitter drug-pushing sponsor.
Very true.We deal with land, and trust me, no one ever wants to invest heavily in south coast.
A former schoolmate was among the first casualties, killed while disembarking the ferry
Some of those places, the locals want to live in the 19th Century, they are so brainwashed that no amount of development can open their eyes may be travelling to developed areas can convince them of the convenience of development.
Surprisingly but he used to say that every statement attributed to him was just a balloon to test the air, to chart the next cause of action. He was such a friendly guy serving all.
I remember the events of 1997 like it happened yesterday. I was a young boy then, we lived in Maweni area of the now Nyali constituency, hived from the larger Kisauni. The area was/is heavily inhabited by people from upcountry with a few native swahilis. My parents used to work at the Kongowea Market.
I didn’t know there was political tension at the coast, but my parents knew. On this day, they and a few other people who worked at the market didn’t go to work. The swahili-style plot we lived in had almost all the tribes, a luo, a kikuyu (us), a taita, a kamba, a luhya, a meru.
At around midday while we were playing outside, the usual kid games, we heard screams, “Ndio hao wanakuja! Ndio hao wanakuja” and scores of people running helter-skelter.
Shops were hurriedly shut, people on the road ran into the nearest plot to take shelter. My mum comes outside and orders us to get inside the house. The wooden door (metal doors weren’t common then) was shut tight and just then while peeping through the keyholes and windows we saw lorries with men wielding pangas.
I asked what this is all about, nikajibiwa “Kayabombo”. I couldn’t make sense of what that meant or what the heck it was. Everyone remained indoors for the rest of the day. I could occasionally here people discussing stories of how people have been killed in Likoni.
The next day, my sister and I were whisked away to our uncle’s home at MITC just past the Sheikh Khalifa School. We stayed there for 2 good weeks. Tukachukuliwa na wazazi when tension had died down.
pale bondeni kulijaa watu wakienda upcountry with the meagle belongings zile walikua wamesave, huku bamburi ilibidi tupeleke all women and children home wazee wakabaki waguard mali yao. my family came back in jan of 98.
ata ukaniuzia buloti ngiri kumi likoni sinunui
My father later bought a plot from a mswahili, my uncle too, at least in the Kongowea area siasa za kikabila sio mbaya sana like in Likoni and Bombolulu. I Bombolulu I knew of ten arab/bajunis who owned nearly the entire area. Mashamba yao yalivamiwa na wagiriama wakati Kibaki alisema serikali itachukua mashamba yote ambayo hayatumiwi na kupeana watu.
on the island and mombasa north things were not so bad, likoni ndio mambo yote ilikua, IDPs camped at the catholic church for months. i still get the chills when i go to likoni,
nikikumbuka hio siku vile kulianza ferry ilivukisha watu kama kawa from island na kufika likoni side they were met with pangas, that first night no help was forth coming, it was an orgy of rape, killing, burning and looting.