BRIEF REPORT ON THE  INDIGENEOUS  COMEMORATION  OF  THE MONTH  OF  MUHARRAM IN KENYA.

 By Mwinyi Ramadhani

Before  , without even  knowing the  differrent ideological  differences muslims  in East Africa  would start  the preparation of  Muharram immediately afterthe celebrations of  Eid Ul Adha . Those who  lived in the villages would paint their houses  with refined  ashes  mixed with cow dung . As much as it would be  the Islamic new year  there would be know celebrations of any kind , no weddings  would be held  in that month and the following month of  Safar . This shows that the muslims were aware of what happened  in this  month  but unlike the  shia community  , there were  no majlis in mosques  about the tragedy of Karbala.

It is after the  Islamic Revolution of Iran that most people came to learn about the tragedy of Karbala through reading  materials and darsas that were held by sheikh Abdillahi Nassir. In Riruta , in the out skirts  of the city of Nairobi  , the community had the chance to know about  the tragedy of  Karbala  after the visit by  Sheikh Ali Mayunga  over20 years ago who held a 10 days majlis in the village mosque  having being the first one in a non shia  mosque .  Since then , Riruta Muslim village is  one among many areas where  muharram majlis are held in Kenya .

Compared to  before when majority people did not have have knowledge about the tragedy of karbala , today people look forward  towards attending this majlis , both young and the old , shias and sunnis  join  each other to commemorate  these  great occasion . Earlier , it was only

the khoja community that used to hold majlis in their mosques but in privacy but as mentioned earlier it was after the  Islamic revolution in Iran that the  knowledge  about the ragedy of karbala  became known. Today ,  come the tenth day of  Muharram ,i.e day of Ashura  , one would see processions by indigineous natives  marking  the  day of Ashura  unlike before when the  procession would be  by the khoja community only , currently , one can find processions by indigeneous  shia  muslims  in areas such as  t he  Rabai , Mombasa and Lamu areas in the coastal region  , Langata , ,Parkroad in Nairobi  where some few indigeneous join the khoja community  and recently Nakuru in the Rift Valley has been very active for the past 4 years