Discuss any seven challenges faced by Muslims in Kenya in the nineteenth century

KCSE IRE Paper 2 2009 Question 5(b) with Answers and Marking Scheme.

(b) Discuss any seven challenges faced by Muslims in Kenya in the nineteenth century (14 marks)

Challenges Faced by Muslims in Kenya in the Nineteenth Century

1. The Muslim presence remained mainly along the coastal strip and on the Indian Ocean islands as they could not venture into the mainland for fear of hostile peoples and other unknown factors.
2. During the nineteenth century European nations e.g. British, French, Germans and the Dutch started showing interest on the coast of East Africa and this posed a threat to the Muslim possessions along the Kenyan coast.
3. During the nineteenth century European Christian missionaries started their evangelization of the Kenyan people spearheaded by the CMS, UMFC and the Holy Ghost Fathers. The Christian missionary activities posed a threat to the spread of Islam.
4. The Europeans regarded Muslims with suspicion and mistrust as they only saw them in term of slavery and slave trade a fact that made them determined to check further Muslim influence among the Kenyan people.
5. There was disunity among Muslim rulers. They would not encounter/countercheck the external interference as a united front.
6. The weakening of the Ottoman empire affected what was happening in the Muslim world including the coast of Kenya.
7. The signing of treaties between the European powers (especially Britain) and the Muslim rulers undermined the Muslim power and trade.
8. The inability of Muslims to take Islam to the interior of Kenya accorded the Christian missionaries the opportunity to take Christianity to the interior without hinderances.
9. The scramble for Africa leading to the  Berlin Conference and partition of Africa brought, Kenya under the British rule. That meant Muslims lost their political economic and social control of their possessions.
10. Colonisation by the British meant that the Muslim lost their independence which they had enjoyed for centuries (with the exception of the period of the Portuguese occupation)
11. With colonization and building of the Uganda railway, came the influx of European Christian missionaries into Kenya who started evangelization at a great speed undermining the spread of Islam .
12. The survival of Muslims in Kenya in the midst of all these challenges

(7x2 =14 marks)

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