The Kutchi community includes Lohanas, Jains and Memon and Khojas and Patel. The Patel community is the single largest community living in Kenya, mainly in the capital, Nairobi, also happens to be the least affected, said Harish Kerai, vice president of the Kutchi Leulva Patel Samaj.

“Almost daily I talk to people in Nairobi and other affected towns, but they say they are hopeful of some settlement and there are no immediate plans to leave the country,” said Kerai.

Gujaratis and Kutchis have more than a century old relation with Kenya and many believe it is they who have shaped the country’s economy, and would not leave the country just because of some recent incidents of violence.

Kerai said he spoke to Nairobi based Patel businessman, Dinesbhai Varsani, at 5: 00 pm in the evening. He told me that he and others could go to work in the morning, but in their closed cars. There was tension because of the proposed rally of the defeated party, which was later cancelled much to their relief,” said Kerai.

He said all the Kutchis and Gujaratis in Kenya were safe, though their businesses had been badly affected, particularly in Kisumu, northwest of Nairobi.

Some 3000 Kutchis lived in Kisumu, where they sold mostly hardware and building construction materials. But their shops had now all been destroyed, and no one lived in their houses anymore, he said.

He said most people from the community had either taken shelter in the three Swaminarayan temples in that city or fled to other safer towns, especially to Nairobi.

The Maninagar Swaminaryan Gadi Sansthan, a Swaminaryan sect, which has its roots in Kutch is also in constant touch with their devotees in Kenya.

Head of the sect, Swami Purushottam Priyadasji has been sojourning in Kenya for the past one month and temple priests are being regularly updated about the prevailing situation there.

“Though our people are safe, they are naturally worried about the ethnic clashes. Swami Purushottam Priyadasji has considerable clout among the locals, and he is trying in his own way for an early settlement. The locals are also eager for an early reconciliation as Kutchis and the Gujaratis are the main business community there,” Mahant Bhagwati Priyadasji, second in command at the Sansthan told this paper on Thursday evening.