Nairobi - The wave of insecurity that has hit Kenya in the last few months
is causing severe damage to the country's recovering economy, local
economists have warned.
Abdi Mohammed, an investment analyst at Stanbic Investment Management
Service, told IPS that even though the real extent of the damage to the
country's economy has yet to be quantified, key sectors are losing money due
to unprecedented levels of insecurity.
Over the past year, the country has witnessed a spate of terror-related
attacks on civilians, which have been mostly blamed on Somalia's Islamic
militant group Al-Shabaab. These attacks have prompted travel advisories
from nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States, which have
urged their citizens to keep away from this East African nation.
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere told IPS that Kenya has witnessed a total
of 58 grenade attacks carried out by suspected Al-Shabaab sympathisers this
year, which caused the deaths of 67 people and injured a further 308.
And according to Mohammed, among the sectors worst hit by this violence is
the tourism industry, especially as it heads into peak season in December.
Mohammed told IPS that if the level of instability here escalated, Kenya's
fragile sense of business confidence would be hurt, both locally and
internationally.
"We understand already that many potential investors are reconsidering
whether to relocate their investments if insecurity persists," said
Mohammed.
His comments were echoed by Johnson Nderi, researcher for Corporate Finance
at Suntra Investment Bank in Nairobi, who said that the country's economy
had been affected to the tune of millions of dollars on a monthly basis.
"The image being propagated around the globe of all these incidents of
insecurity will wear away at the recently-renewed investor confidence in the
country. In real terms and in due time we will be able to tell the damage to
the economy, but it is happening now," he told IPS.
Internal Security Minister Katoo Ole Metito also said that terrorism was one
of the most crucial challenges faced by security agencies in the country.
"I want to assure Kenyans that we are committed to fighting terrorism in
this country and we need their support," Metito said last month.
Kenyan business leaders, in interviews with IPS, said that the government
needed to deal firmly with the rising insecurity.
"Among the Kenyan business community there is serious concern about what is
happening in the country," Vimal Shah, the chairman of the Kenya Association
of Manufacturers, told IPS.
"The continuing episodes of disorder are hurting sectors like tourism
directly, as visitors are keeping away. But it is also having an impact on
retail trade, as we have seen in many towns," he said.
According to Patrick Obath, the chair of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance,
the country's image as a business destination of choice is being hurt
internationally and this might delay foreign direct investment in the
country.
"Kenya is a very stable country but due to these security challenges we are,
in the short term, bound to see investments delayed," Obath told IPS.
His comments were echoed by Fred Kaigua, the chief executive of the Kenya
Association of Tour Operators, who said: "We would like the government to
step up intelligence as well as its response to cases of violence in the
country."
Meanwhile, the increased insecurity has given rise to fear and suspicion of
foreigners, especially Somalis.
Mohammed Hirsi, 64, a businessman in Kenya's Eastleigh suburb, located two
kilometres east of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, is among hundreds of affluent
traders of Somali descent who have been affected.
On Nov. 18 suspected terrorists killed seven passengers and injured 30
others in a blast that occurred inside a matatu or mini-bus taxi in the
area. Inter-ethnic clashes and looting broke out and lasted until Nov. 20 as
locals blamed the immigrant Somali community for the terrorist activity.
Hirsi's supermarket is among the many Somali-owned businesses that were
looted in the rampage. In the ensuing two-day melee, more than 30 casualties
were reported at the Kenyatta National Hospital, while contingents of police
and soldiers were deployed in an effort to contain the situation.
Since then fear and suspicion have remained rife in the area.
"The attacks and the ensuing revenge looting, in which I lost goods worth
millions of shillings, have dented the long years of good relations between
Somali and non-Somali communities living here," an obviously bitter Hirsi
told IPS.
"We feel these attacks on the Muslim community are being carried out by
ignorant individuals who are targeting Muslims, especially Somalis,
primarily due to their religion," he said, adding that his fellow Somali
businessmen are living in constant fear of further reprisal attacks.
Local residents are indifferent to opinions like his, however.
According to one, John Njoroge, the Somali community in the area is culpable
of abetting the terrorists by failing to report to police the names of
Al-Shabaab sympathisers who live among both communities.
"If they maintain that they are law-abiding citizens, why have they been
reluctant to report the criminal elements among them to the police?" Njoroge
asked IPS.
The country's two leading politicians, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime
Minister Raila Odinga, have since broken their silence over the recent
attacks.
Speaking when he led the launch of the national voter registration exercise
in the capital on Nov. 19, Kibaki issued a stern warning to those planning
to disrupt the process, saying they would face the full force of the law.
Kibaki said the government had already stepped up security around the nation
to ensure that the process went smoothly.
"Please don't seek to be forgiven for any mischief you do, because whoever
you are we shall take action," a tough-talking Kibaki said. "There is no
point in anybody trying to mess up an election. Nobody has a right to
interfere."
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Received on Sat Dec 01 2012 - 20:05:18 EST
