by: Hamza Mohamed
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Thousands of foreigners, mostly Somalis in Nairobi's Easteigh, have been on the chase since last month's attacks.
It’s Saturday night, few minutes past 9pm, at Easteigh’s 7th Street in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The street should be teeming with crowds – shops should be doing brisk business, tea stalls should be crowded with customers and soft music should be wafting from the numerous Khat parlours that line this street.
That would’ve been the picture at the start of a normal weekend here. But since April 1st, 7th street, like the rest of Eastleigh, has been anything but normal.
In place of the tea stalls and customers drinking sweat spicy Somali tea are stray dogs scavenging in the pile of rubbish left uncollected on the side of the street. Street kids sleep on the sidewalks and in front of the shops that have closed early. Group of police officers and an empty lorry hang about at the far end of the once busy street, their torch blinding passersby ordering them to stop and produce ID cards. Those who don’t have an ID card can pay a bribe or face arrest. The nights in this part of Nairobi has been turned upside down.
Following last month’s deadly attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa that have left at least dozen dead, the Kenyan government started crackdown on foreign nationals in this part of Nairobi - well known as Little Mogadishu for it’s mainly Somali inhabitants - blaming them for harbouring criminals and general insecurity in the country. More than four thousand, mainly Somalis, have been arrested since the swoop dubbed ‘Usalama’ which means peace started.
On this same Saturday night a pregnant Somali woman fell from the third floor of an apartment window in Eastleigh as she attempted to hide from officers knocking at her door. She’s in hospital with serious injuries.
Nadifa Abdi said she has legal papers to stay in Kenya but police officers never accept them and demand bribe. She was running from officers as she had no money to bribe them with when she fell, she told reporters. It wasn’t the first time they came knocking at her door late in the night, she added.
The community here feel under siege from their own government – the one Eastleigh residents voted overwhelming for just over a year ago.
Eastleigh is the economic nerve centre of Nairobi – capital of East Africa’s biggest economy. Business is down more than 75 percent according to community leaders. They say customers are avoiding stepping out for fear of been nabbed by the police despite having the right paperwork. Traders claim they are been collectively punished for actions of few criminals.
Locals here all have a story to tell about harassment in the hands of the police force. Some have been detained for days despite showing to the police officers their Kenyan ID cards.
Those arrested have been taken to a national stadium where rights group say conditions are appaling.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the crackdowns will continue. Despite the arrests of thousands of foreign nationals no al Shabab fighter has been caught or sleeper cell found in Eastleigh.
Last Wednesday a car explosion in the city killed 4 including two police officers. No one has claimed responsibility. Hours after the explosion police found a car laden with explosive materials abandoned in a busy street in Pangani neighbourhood of the city.
As the crackdown continues residents feel they've nowhere to turn to. Eastleigh and Somalis find themselves between a hard place and a rock. On one hand they have suffered the most from the insecurity in the city and are now been adversely affected by operation ‘peace’.