What’s in a Tribe and What Does it Mean to Kenyan Politicians?

Tribalism. A simple term to pronounce but whose effects have been profound on the socioeconomic sector in Kenya since independence.

There have been several efforts to try and combat tribalism but the more the efforts the more the same seems to thrive.

If there are people who are praying hard that Kenyans never become enlightened and move away from their tribal cocoon are the Kenyan politicians.

Without tribalism in Kenya, the current breed of tribal warlords in the name of politicians will be rendered jobless for all of them will be sent home for a new generational change.

Kenyans, however, seem to have embraced tribalism in both body and soul and are not willing to let it go just as their politicians.

Some few weeks ago, County Governor for Uasin Gishu County, Alex Mandago and his counterpart Alex Tolgos from Elgeyo Marakwet County stormed Moi University main campus to eject the new appointed, in acting capacity, Vice Chancellor Professor Ayiro.

The main reason for the two “respected” leaders to storm the institution of higher learning was because a “stranger” had been appointed and not “one of their own” as they had been “promised”.

What was shocking even more was that a few days after the incident, Governor Mandago was welcomed like a hero by residents of Eldoret town further justifying that what the man had done was right and worth celebrating.

The level of tribalism in Kenya is deep within and the fancy talk of doing away with it is like a dream whose realization is only possible in the afterlife.

If you want to know how tribalism is cultured in Kenya, just start with learning institutions, right away from primary schools to secondary schools. You will find out that 90 percent of school heads in a certain region are of the tribe in that region.

Go to Bungoma do a head count of the heads in those institutions. You are likely to find out that 90 percent of them are luhyas.

Go to Kisumu or Kiambu or Uasin Gishu and the facts will be the same. And now they are introducing the same in the institutions of higher learning, wanting ” one of their own” to be at the helm of everything.

There has been a premise that Kenyan youth are tribeless and that in future, Kenya will just be a one nation, one people and one language.

This is a wrong premise whose conclusion holds no water at all. Visit social media and see how the Kenyan youth are vomiting tribal venom.

On twitter for instance, 90 percent of those conversing in Kenya are tribal especially on matters to do with politics.

Tribalism is affecting the economy of this country and the effect is even intense as the next general election nears. Already, there is a word that members of some community are moving away from certain regions and going back “home” for fear of what might happen if the inevitable occurs during the 2017 general elections.

There some regions in Kenya one cannot set up a shop or a business if the person is not from that tribe. Employment is even worse with ones tribe being the first qualification before anything else is put into consideration.

There are some public offices in Kenya where those who work speak their mother tongue and anyone who speaks either Swahili or English is seen as an alien just landed from another planet.

The fact that those pretending to be fighting tribalism don’t want to hear is that tribalism is not ending soon. It has been there, it is there and it will be there. How can it end when it what is based on to form governments? How can it end when political leaders speak in their mother tongue when they visit their regions without considering others who are residents of the region but do not understand the dialect? How can it end when it is part of the requirement before applying for a national identity card? How can it end when people see tribe in every public appointment? Tribalism is here to stay the only thing we need is a way to positively adopt to it for our own good.

One big mistake that those pretending to be fighting tribalism is to assume that language is part of tribalism. Language is part of the tribe, yes, but tribalism is more stronger that the language and the tribe. Those fighting languages saying that they are the ones promoting tribalism are missing the point. Our local languages are part of  our heritage. Languages are part of the culture of the community. It is actually an official identity of a community and trying to say that such should be abandoned is like telling the community to abandon itself.

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