Nairobi, Kenya – Wairimu Gathimba’s mission is to educate his fellow Kenyans about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and encourage as many people as possible to boycott Israeli products in the East African country.
The 22-year-old writer and cultural worker had long been aware of the conflict as a child, but simply as news to know, not as a cause to get involved in or take sides. But years of unlearning and difficult discussions, she says, brought her to her current position.
“Growing up in an African Catholic family, the issue of Palestine was not something I talked about,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Israel was the “good” country… Until I met a friend during my first year of university who made me develop a form of curiosity for Palestine. »
Then came the Hamas attacks on October 7, followed by Israel’s continued bombing of the Gaza Strip in retaliation. For young, socially active Kenyans like Gathimba, who have been increasingly aware and dismayed by the conflict for years, the latest iteration has kicked their activism into high gear.
In November, the Communist Party of Kenya organized a demonstration which was broken up by police. Vigils, workshops and educational events were held across Nairobi, and boycotts of Israeli businesses began to become a priority for a growing number of people.
Gathimba is part of several advocacy organizations, including one called Kenyans for Palestine, which has organized screenings of Palestinian films, created infographics to help identify brands to boycott, and called for government action. He is now urging Kenyan food delivery platform Greenspoon to ditch Israeli-owned products. Members also educate their friends and family about the nuances of the conflict.
But a boycott is harder than it seems.
Israeli businesses occupy many street corners in the Kenyan capital. The hugely popular Artcaffe chain of cafes and casual restaurants as well as the bustling Westgate Mall are owned and operated by Israeli companies. There are also other influential companies whose names are a little less well known, such as the Amiran Kenya agricultural company.
These Israeli-owned and -supported institutions are a part of Kenyan life, so much so that few people are aware of this connection.
Even some of those who know about it have been the least bothered. Many Kenyans, and even Africans, have looked away from the conflict, preferring to focus on continental crises and view what is happening in the Middle East as far away from them.
“(Many) Kenyans tend to think that (the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) is far from us,” said XN Iraki, an economics professor at the University of Nairobi. “The attitude is to let people solve their problems. As with the war between Russia and Ukraine, we don’t talk about it much.”
But for those leading the boycotts and encouraging others to join, the parallels between Kenya’s colonial past and Palestine’s current predicament are too strong to ignore.
That similarity is what makes the fight worth it, even if it is slow and difficult, said Gathimba, who contributed research to an episode on Palestine for the podcast “Until Everyone be free,” which began as a show about a Kenyan freedom fighter. She and some members of the podcast team were meeting at one of these Artcaffes. Shortly after October 7, they stopped.
“The work that I do, the boycotts that I participate in, are a very small sacrifice to make compared to what the Palestinian people are doing,” Gathimba said. “There are so many parallels in historical oppression. I have to support.
“Disappointing… but not shocking”
Two months of war have also left some Kenyans dismayed by their government’s failure to criticize Israel’s brutal response to Hamas attacks, which human rights groups say amount to war crimes .
The government’s official position on the conflict is unclear. President William Ruto has not expressed support for Hamas or Israel, although he addressed the conflict during a recent panel at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“In Kenya, we have suffered the brunt of the struggle for independence in the same way as the Palestinians. We have also faced the challenge of terrorism in the same way that Hamas faced terrorism in Israel,” Ruto said. “Both are wrong.”
But Kenya’s actions hardly seem neutral.
On May 24, he abstained from a World Health Organization vote on health conditions in occupied Palestine. On December 7, two months after attacks that killed at least 32 Thai farm workers in Israel, Kenya sent 1,500 farm workers there.
“The government’s response is disappointing but not necessarily shocking,” Gathimba said.
‘A long way to go’
Relations between Kenya and Israel date back more than a century, before the two countries even officially existed.
On January 13, 1905, long before Zionists officially established a Jewish state in what is currently known as Israel, a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew undertook an expedition to what was then the British colony of Israel. Kenya.
The goal of the expedition was to find a Jewish homeland – a place where millions of Jews scattered across Europe could escape persecution. Thus, Israel – home to a decades-long conflict, including the recent October 7 attacks – was almost designed as an autonomous enclave in East Africa, not the Middle East.
The visiting Zionists had been informed by Joseph Chamberlain, a British colonial administrator, that the land in question, an area bounded by Lake Nakuru, Kisumu, Mount Elgon and the equator, would constitute “an excellent climate suitable for white people.”
“It was sparsely populated,” said Adam Rovner, associate professor of English and Jewish literature at the University of Denver. “And the land was suitable for agriculture. If there had not been a Zionist on the expedition who wanted to settle Israel on a biblical land, things might have been different.”
Even today, ties between the two countries go far beyond mere window dressing and covert political signaling. Kenya’s passive support for Israel represents support for Israel’s key allies, the United States and Western European ideals, analysts say.
“In Kenya, we consider Israel to be part of the Western bloc,” Iraki said. “Since Ruto came to power, he has visited England and Europe. Because of the ties with the West, I consider relations between Kenya and Israel to be very cordial.”
Israel also contributes to Kenya’s overall economy – particularly through the export and import of agricultural products. In 2018, Kenya’s exports to Israel averaged just over 1.4 billion Kenyan shillings (just over $9 million), the majority of which were agriculture-based, according to the Kenyan Embassy in Israel.
Then there are religious ties. Although almost 11 percent of the population is Muslim, Kenya is a Christian state. Israel represents the homeland – Kenyans go to Israel on a Christian pilgrimage, to get closer to themselves and their faith. And because of these seemingly religious ties, many Kenyans grew up supporting Israel in the conflict.
This religious tension could be another reason why many Kenyans remain so tight-lipped about the conflict. “Many Kenyans don’t want to say who they support because of the religious context,” Iraki said. “They want to be careful about it.”
Young Kenyans like Gathimba are confident that this will change, that the more noise she and her peers make, the more Kenyans will know enough to make informed decisions about their support.
More and more people are attending events, learning and changing their minds – at least from what Gathimba has heard from his peers.
“Many Kenyans are stuck in the narrative on both sides,” Gathimba said. “But I am very optimistic about the way things are evolving, at least in terms of challenging the dominant narratives in official memory. Of course, we still have a long way to go, but we are somewhere.”