Even casual observers of the Kenyan political scene over the last decade will recall events such as the violence following the 2007 elections, the debates surrounding the 2010 constitutional referendum, the passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in 2012, the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping mall in 2013, and ongoing concerns about in-country recruitment and violence by the Somali Al-Shabaab terrorist network. A common element to all of these events has been the attention that they have drawn to the status of Muslims in Kenyan politics and society. At 11 per cent of the population, compared to a Christian majority of more than 80 per cent, Muslims are a minority religion in Kenya – but a highly significant minority, both historically and today.
Muslims in Kenyan Politics is an excellent primer on the historical and contemporary status of Muslims in Kenya, spanning the history of Muslim groups' relation to the British colonial power, through the rise of politicized Islam in the 1990s, to present-day issues and conflicts. Hassan Ndzovu argues that, despite their minority status, Kenyan Muslims ‘have produced the most politically visible form of associational activity in the country’, (ix), but that this has not been an easy process. Pointedly, Ndzovu argues, ‘Besides providing lackluster service to their constituents, most Muslim politicians have done little to inspire political awareness in their communities, or to initiate projects that would socially elevate their electorates, particularly Muslims. However, the overwhelming perception of marginalization and discrimination is beginning to mobilize Muslim politicians (extremists included) to demand justice and fair treatment’ (4).
Poor education and relative economic impoverishment are among the factors that Ndzovu argues have contributed to Muslim marginalization, particularly as Muslims did not benefit from Christian missionary and, later, state-run schools, preferring to educate their children in Islamic madrasas (4, 30, 76). Ndzovu indicates that this may be changing, as Muslim communities have realized the extent to which this more limited education has hindered the employment prospects of their youth, as well as not equipping Muslims to assume more public roles in government and administration.
But, an even more pervasive factor, evident throughout the book, has been the Muslim community's fragmentation and division, from colonial times to the present. As Ndzovu describes it, ‘The most striking feature of the Kenyan Muslims, like their Christian compatriots, is a sociocultural heterogeneity that cuts across the various racial and ethnic groups in the country. Due to this heterogeneity, Muslims' political participation has often been influenced by ethnic, racial, and sometimes religious considerations' (7). Indeed, Ndzovu argues that in Kenya, ‘Muslim politics are grounded in ethnicity and race in both the colonial and postcolonial periods’ (14), particularly the ongoing social and political legacy of colonial privileges granted to Arab Muslims that did not extend to their African Muslim counterparts.
In a context in which religion continues to be perceived as somewhat epiphenomenal to historical and political developments, even with what is increasingly being described as a global resurgence of religion worldwide, political developments in Kenya continue often to be described as ethnic rather than religious. Ndzovu's analysis sheds important light on this relationship, accounting for ways that ‘religion and ethnicity combine to provide individuals with distinct identities' in a way that also corresponds with the ‘tendency in Kenya to associate one's ethnicity with a particular religion’ (7) and the ‘significant role of ethnicity among Kenyan Muslims' (68) – so it appears that religion and ethnicity may not be so neatly separable in the Kenyan context. And as Ndzovu further observes, ‘Muslims in Kenya are drawn from minority ethnic groups, thus doubling their sense of marginalization as ethnic and religious minorities' (9) – a position that Ndzovu notes another Kenya scholar has described as ‘internal colonization’ (77).
The book's historical chapters chronicle the differences between Arab Muslims, African Muslims, Somali Muslims, ‘white Arabs’, ‘black Arabs’, Muslims in the coastal strip that was part of the British Protectorate of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and Muslims elsewhere in Kenya's urban and rural areas. The diverse experiences of these groups are striking and clearly illustrate the difficulties of forming a unified Muslim politics in Kenya. Other chapters chronicle the ways in which Kenya's postcolonial leaders marshalled and manipulated religious interests, both Muslim and Christian alike. These chapters also deal with the complex relationships between religion and the state, with religious groups occasionally challenging the state, but more often benefitting uncritically from government privileges where those are available. Ndzovu describes how Muslim criticism of the state has grown since the 2002 elections in such matters as the defense of constitutionally recognized Kadhi courts and in opposition to various antiterrorism bills perceived as discriminating against the Muslim community.
At various points in its analysis, the book further rewards the reader with keen observations about secularism and whether separation of religion and politics in Kenya is achieved or achievable, the growing status of Kenya's Muslim women, and much more. Overall, the book is to be commended as a lucid and illuminating historical and contemporary treatment of the status and politics of Muslims in Kenya.
