Tribal barons have lost much of their influence

The unexpected is happening. There’s a quiet revolution taking place among hoi polloi. Except in Luo Nyanza and among the Kikuyu, tribal barons everywhere are under siege. Even among the Luo, the once indomitable Raila Odinga is constantly being forced to put out small bushfires. Only TNA’s Uhuru Kenyatta has untrammeled control in his backyard. There’s a slow-burning metamorphosis of the Kenyan psyche. Kenyans are seeing — for the first time — the futility of the tribe as their cardinal pivot. I attribute this emergent consciousness to four factors — devolution, the elite looting of the public purse, impunity and the rising maturation of the average voter in our fledgling democracy. Economic interests are replacing ethnic loyalties in our polity.

The tribalisation of the Kenyan state is legendary. KANU perfected the art — and science — of ethnic politics. Under NARC’s Mwai Kibaki, tribal mandarins took charge. Jubilee rests on only two groups — the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin. The bankruptcy of our politics is deep in the marrow of the bone. Let’s take a walk along memory lane. Virtually each group has had a tribal baron, although some groups were less regimented than others. For example, the Coast hasn’t jelled around one figure since the age of Ronald Ngala. The late Karisa Maitha had a shot, but was cut down by disease. The hawkish Shariff Nassir was too much of sycophant to wield real power. The Coast is a king-free zone.