Let’s confront the challenge of our political tribalism

It appears Kenya has brought herself to yet another brink of ethnic conflict. It has been extremely disheartening to see members of various communities literally fleeing from their neighbours in a perceived fear that they might be victims of ethnic violence prior to, during, or after the Saba Saba rally. Of course, there is a sense in which these flights may be an overreaction, yet these fears are not without merit. Considering the high pitched negative rhetoric spewing out of the lips of our leaders from both sides of the political divide, one is justified taking whatever precautions they can  to ensure safety of their families. Even Nairobians are reportedly stocking up in preparation for any eventuality.

The big question, however, is just how we suddenly got ourselves into this situation. This is a question that appears simple and yet not quite so. On the easier side, the blame can be placed squarely at the doorstep of CORD who, out of the blues started agitating for national dialogue. On the more difficult side though, is just how masses suddenly congregated in droves at these apparently rudderless rallies.

Of course there has been the issue of busing in of crowds. That notwithstanding, my fear is we perhaps have focused too much on the easier side of this equation and have perhaps refused to dig deeper into the rock. In 1994, the world awoke to the shock of a mass genocide in which over one million people were killed in 90 days in an interethnic fight between the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda. Yet, apart from Rwanda, genocidal wars in Africa have been in Burundi, Liberia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and Sierra Leone, and even in the newest nation South Sudan.

According to scholars, whereas each of these ethnic conflicts has had its own unique history, studies have suggested that they share a set of triggering factors those results in mass violence. Many of these factors can only be understood by appreciating the nature of inter-ethnic relations within the particular context. One such factor is the understanding and appreciation of ethnicity and nationhood.

Some scholars have defined the nation as an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. Thus the manifestations of ethnicity in Africa has been seen as a consequence of the continent’s experience of colonialism and modernity, which created artificially homogeneous communities just as much as it introduced imaginary distinctions.

However, writing on ethnicity in sub-Saharan Africa, David Welsh reasoned that, whereas ethnicity in Africa may have been a product of the colonial era, its major stimulus has derived from the introduction of competitive politics and its subsequent use as a political resource. And this is fanned by “the politics of the pork-barrel in which leadership is conceived as comprising kin obligations which merge imperceptibly into ethnic nepotism.”

Okwudiba Nnoli equally concurs and argues that ethnicity in contemporary Africa is associated with competition, exclusiveness, and conflicts in relations among ethnic groups, which are members of a political community.

This may elucidate how in Kenya, the curse of ethnocentrism visited the nation after the 2007 elections, causing the hitherto peaceful Kenyans to rise up against one another with beastly ferociousness.

In their subsequent study on the causes of the post-election violence; Migot Adhola, Paul Mbatia, Wanza Kioko, and Oliver Simiyu observed that the patterns and causes of post-2007 election violence affirmed the strong correlation between relative deprivation and intensity of violence; such that the most affected areas were those most economically deprived, both in the cosmopolitan urban areas and rural populations.

This seemed to confirm Freeman’s assertion that individuals are more likely to resort to aggression if they are of the perception that their neighbours from particular ethnic groups have better access to political and economic opportunities than themselves. Sadly, these are issues that our political elite in particular and Kenyans in general have preferred to exploit rather than resolve. Thus while CORD seems to be exploiting the situation, Jubilee appears to play the ostrich.

In the early church, when a conflict arose between the Grecian Jews and the Hebraic Jews over the daily distribution of food, the Apostles could have ignored it as a minor issue compared to the greater task of evangelism, but they did not. Instead they chose seven men from among the warring parties known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. They turned this responsibility over to them. The result: the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

I believe it is in doing likewise that we can conclusively address these issues and thereby achieve the much-needed social cohesion and economic growth. The truth is unless and until we face the ugly side of our political tribalism, pushing for or resolving Saba Saba may not be the end of our sorrows.