Kenya from an Israeli resident’s perspective

By J. Zel Lurie

DELRAY BEACH, Florida —  I will be on a cruise when this column is published. I will return home one day before the crucial Israeli elections.

The Israeli campaign is confined to three months and TV ads are forbidden, except for the last two weeks. On the day after the elections negotiations among the parties, large and small, to form a governing coalition will commence.

But today my eyes turn to Kenya, where  ethnic violence broke out recently.

Gila Svirsky, a longtime Jerusalem friend, had recently moved to Kenya.   Gila, co-founder of the Women in Black for peace, which has spread all over the world, and the former chair of B’Tselem human rights organization, agreed to write a column for me.

I asked Gila some questions about the Jews in Nairobi, the economic situation, and how an Israeli adjusted to equatorial Africa. Here is her reply.

By Gila Svirsky  

Kenya is a democracy composed of roughly fifty ethnic groups or tribbes depending on who is counting. They dislike each other, to pit it mildly. They  play a major role in national elections.

In the 2007 presidential election, a number of parties ganged up on the dominant tribe, the Kikuyus, which had headed every government since independence in 1963. They created a coalition called the Orange Democratic Party (ODP), and Raila Odinga, president of the Democratic Party, was elected to head the ticket.

The official counters said that Mr. Odinga had lost, but international observers said that there had been large-scale manipulation of votes, and riots broke out. Here in Mombasa, Muslim Kenyans who had supported the ODP took to the streets and looted stores, though the violence and killing were much more serious in other parts of Kenya, where over a thousand Kenyans were killed in the tribal conflict.
One in five Kenyans is a Muslim, the same percentage of Arab citizens of Israel.

Kofi Annan, who was U.N. Secretary General at the time, brokered an agreement between President Kibaki and Mr. Odinga, creating the post of prime minister for Mr. Odinga and a cabinet that was inclusive of all the major parties. If only our differences in the Middle East could be thus resolved with a little help from our friends in the Obama Administration.

Incidentally, President Obama’s father was a Luo, which is the fourth largest tribe in Kenya.

Why am I here? 

To tell you the truth, I came here not as a Zionist emissary, but because my partner-in-life was offered an excellent job with the UN in Mombasa, a port city on the eastern coast of Kenya facing the beautiful Indian Ocean. So we’re here for an indefinite period.

I sort of expected much of what we have seen so far – the climate and the poverty. Mombasa’s weather is not very different from Tel Aviv – hot and muggy – but in Mombasa there is no cool season and few air-conditioners. And I can look forward to heavy monsoon rains in May, a weather condition I have never experienced.

A major contrast with Israel is the standard of living: While first-world Israel enjoys an economy reflected in $32,000 per capita GDP, Kenyans don’t even make it to $1,000 per capita, on average. Though the economic indicators show a robust economy (like Israel), the main beneficiaries are the wealthy (as in Israel). What with severe drought, poor infrastructure, and pervasive corruption, it’s a wonder this country functions at all – unemployment, not surprisingly, registers an appalling 40 percent. And to add to the woes, Kenyans are beset by HIV-AIDS, malaria, and other serious diseases, resulting in a life expectancy of almost 30 years less than that of most Israelis.

Mombasa is actually an island, but most visitors to Kenya don’t go there. The tourists head for the coastal region to its north and south,  which are known for their pristine white beaches and the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Or they drive two hours inland to the famous safaris of the Tsavo National Park to shiver in fear at the lions from inside an air-conditioned Landcruiser. We haven’t done a ridiculous plush safari yet, but I hope we will some day.

The Zionist Uganda project 

Northwestern Kenya was mistakenly called Uganda by Theodor Herzl when he proposed to the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903 that Zionists abandon Zion temporarily and accept the British offer of a Jewish enclave there. Two years later, the Seventh Zionist Congress rejected the British offer, but in the two-year interval, several Zionist leaders had moved to Kenya. The descendants of this original group then uprooted to Nairobi and formed the nucleus of the Jewish community there, several hundred strong. In its heyday in 1957, a Jew was elected mayor of Nairobi.

Today there are roughly 400 Jews in Nairobi, and at least five of us in Mombasa – us and the three owners of the most popular restaurant here – all of us Israelis. Not only is the food good, but on Shabbat you can buy a quality challah there in the upscale bakery attached. Ah, the embryo of a full Jewish life in Mombasa.

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Lurie is a freelance writer based in Delray Beach, Florida.  He may be contacted via jzel.lurie@sdjewishworld.com