Kenya’s Long History With Islam

A Summa Digest of Islam in Kenya

Islam is an integral part of Kenya’s multicultural scene, with nearly 30% of the people of Kenya being Muslim. It is noteworthy to mention that Islam dominates in the Coast, North Eastern and Upper Eastern regions, yet virtually every town in the country has at least one mosque. Old Town Lamu has, perhaps, the deepest links with Islam, with more than 30 mosques, which are architectural records of the introduction and spread of the religion in this country, in its various forms. As historian and ethnographers agree, the history of Islam in Kenya dates back to the 7th century, making it one of the oldest national religions. Islam spread through trade, migration, and interactions with Arab and Persian traders along the coast.

After the Prophet Mohammed died in 632 AD, his followers immediately split between Shi’a (shi’ali), those who followed the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali and his descendants, and Sunni, the followers of the Sunna, ‘the way’ as formulated by popularly elected imams. During the two centuries after the Prophet’s death, four orthodox Sunni ‘schools of law’ (madhhabs) grew – Hanafite, Malikite, Shafi’ite, and Hanbalite. Later others came into being, such as the Ibadhite, followed by the Omanis, and the ultra-puritanical Wahabite which, now known as Muwahiddun (Unitarians), is the law in Saudi Arabia. While Sunni mosques are open to every Muslim, naturally people congregate at a mosque of their own particular school.

Coastal towns such as Lamu, Mombasa, Malindi, and Pate became early centers of Islamic influence. The Swahili culture emerged as a blend of native Bantu, Arab, Persian, and Indian influences, with Islam as a key component. Unlike Christianity it was not introduced by missionaries but simply came with Arabs and Indians who were trading on the East African Coast. The Swahili of the east African coast follow the Shaafi School (although their one-time overlords, the Sultans of Oman and Zanzibar, were Ibadhi), as do the Somalis. But due to the Hanafi heritage left by the Mogul emperors of India, virtually all the Sunni Muslim Indian groups who settled in Kenya followed the Hamfi, the school incorporating much of Sufism.

The oldest remains that have been found of any mosque in Kenya are those at Shanga in the Lamu Archipelago at hand with the Somalian border. These consist of the post-holes of a succession of 9th century wooden mosques below which are remains of the 10-11 th century stone mosque, all excavated by Mark Horton. In the succeeding centuries a number of trading towns grew up along the coast, which reached their peak in the 14th and 15th centuries. And in time the seasonal traders settled down, and a number of specific Muslim communities took root. They flourished under the Sultan of Oman when in 1832 he shifted his capital from Oman to Zanzibar and posted a liwali (prime minister) in each coastal townships.

Although Arab slave and ivory traders were long settled on the Kenya coast, the waterless Taru Desert and the militant Maasai discouraged the development of trade directly inland to the Great Lakes. This came through trade caravans. From the trade caravans, Islam spread until within a very short time the Somalis were all Muslim, even the nomadic pastoralists. It was the nomads who moved steadily westward, towards the Tana River. But unlike their settled Islamic brethren, the nomadic Somalis did not build stone mosques, so there is little physical record of their vital dispersal. But the results are clear: virtually all the inhabitants of North Eastern Province and many of those of Upper Eastern today are fervently Muslim.

The British themselves also brought two more waves of Muslims to Kenya, one small and one quite overwhelming. The first wave consisted of the Nubian from Sudan who were employed by the British in their colonial conquest at the end of the 19th century. It was these Nubians who founded some of the first mosques in places such as Kisumu, Eldama Ravine and Kibera. The second wave came from northwestern India – the great majority of the 30,000 labourers from the Punjab recruited by the British to build the Railway into the interior were Muslim Punjabis. They founded mosques all along the line of rail, from Mombasa to Kisumu cities.

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Islam first arrived in the coastal regions of Kenya through Arab and Persian traders, by the 8th century. At the prominent city-states such as Mombasa, Malindi, and Lamu that emerged along the Kenyan coast are many historic mosque from different eras. Islam in Kenya today represents a diverse and dynamic part of the country’s fabric, represented in beautiful mosque.

Index of Historic Mosques Around Kenya



Isiolo County - Isiolo Jamia Mosque, Kilifi County - The Great Mosque at Gede, Qubba Mosque, Kisumu County - The Arab, Nubian and Swahili Mosques, Kwale County - Kongo Mosque, Diani Mosque, Kirinyaga County - Mosque of Jesus Christ Son of Mary, Lamu County - Khoja Ithnasheri Mosque, Riyadha Mosque, Friday Mosque at Shela, Mombasa County - Badala Mosque, The Mandhry Mosque, Burhani Mosque, Musa Mosque, Muranga County - Mjini Mosque, Nairobi County - Khoja Mosque, Jamia Mosque, Ahmadiyya Mosque, Wajir County - The Noor Mosque, Eldas Jamia Mosque

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