As jihadist militants sowed death and horror inside Westgate mall last week, Nairobi’s Jains became the silent heroes of the days-long emergency effort.
The Jain community, whose small Indian religion upholds non-violence as a sacred principle, opened their doors at the onset of the attack on Sept. 21 claimed by Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group.
As the crackle of gunshots filled the air, the Oshwal religious center just 100m away was a haven where survivors, relatives, security forces and journalists were sheltered, treated, counseled and fed.
“We have a lot of space and numerous parking places,” said Bhupendra Shah, a senior member of the Visa Oshwal community.
On the Saturday that the raid was launched, “I made a round, I saw soldiers and policemen standing, who where hungry and thirsty,” Shah said.
“We sent e-mails to request help, and donations started to arrive on Sunday morning,” Shah added.
Within hours the Jains mobilized like an army and tapped into their formidable economic power.
Families brought liters of juice freshly squeezed at home, a sporting club donated eight vans packed with food, an industrial bakery and a top retail chain gave tonnes of bread and water bottles.
The Jains have only 12,000 members in Nairobi, a city of 4 million with a large population of Indian descent, but among them are the chief executive officers of Nakumatt, East Africa’s retail giant, and other top companies.
On the second and third days of the brutal siege, Oshwal volunteers served about 15,000 meals inside their religious center, an imposing ochre building of Hindu architecture surrounded by sprawling grounds.
Three times a day, the red vests of the Red Cross, the green ones of the St John ambulance service, the camouflage gear of the elite forces battling the mall attackers, mingled in the lines.
Police officers bristling with assault rifles and journalists with cameras also got in line for a plate of food, taking a short break as the siege dragged on.
Serving this exhausted crowd on the front line of one of the worst attacks in Kenya’s history were 400 Jain volunteers working in shifts to welcome their visitors.
A first aid center was set up in the underground car park to ease the burden on the city’s overwhelmed hospitals.
The Oshwal center also made space available to teams offering psychological counseling to traumatized survivors and bereaved families, or helping people to report a missing person.
At least 67 people, including children, are so far confirmed to have been killed in the attack, that also left dozens wounded and 61 people are still reported missing.
“Jain is one of the oldest religions in the world,” Shah said.
“Our religion says ‘do not kill, don’t have anger,’ ‘respect any form of life,’” Shah added.
Jainism is thousands of years old, a religion whose philosophical roots date back to ancient India and are inspired by the same principles of tolerance that influenced Mahatma Gandhi.
Most of its followers are vegetarians or vegans and some of them even refrain from eating roots and tubers in order not to kill insects.
Jain monks sweep the floor in front of them and cover their mouths with their hands as they walk to avoid stepping on or swallowing the slightest creature.
The community is estimated at barely 5 million worldwide.
Conspicuously absent from the temporary crisis management hub set up at the Oshwal were the Kenyan government services.
“When you live in Kenya, [help from the government] is the last thing you ask. You have to rely on yourself,” Shah said.
“Not a single person from the government came to ask what they could do,” Shah added.
Yet the Jains’ efforts did not go unnoticed, galvanizing good will among other religious communities and in some cases even breaking down the prejudice that permeates Kenya’s complex social fabric.
“The important thing is that all Kenyans came together as one, as Kenyans, people from all origins, all communities came to help,” said Miten Shah, another member of Oshwal’s Jain community.
“I never thought the Indians could be so generous,” an African Kenyan who survived the attack said.
A week after the bloodshed, as the nation took stock and licked its wounds, hundreds of people were back at the Oshwal center for a marathon ecumenical prayer vigil for the victims of the massacre.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in