Kenya needs only two strong political parties

The political environment in Kenya has changed over the years since the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1991. Today, the country has over 100 registered political parties.

However, there are concerns that many of these parties are not adding real value to the growth of democracy in Kenya. Politicians are using parties to divide Kenyans along tribal lines. That is why every region has its own political party. In most cases, all you need is to be nominated by a party in its stronghold and the election will be a walk in the park for you.

During the 2007-2008 post-election violence that nearly tore the country apart, the problem was that leaders used polarisation to portray their opponents as “members of their wrong tribe”. Raila Odinga’s ODM party was mainly for Luos and Kalenjins while the Party of National Unity of Mwai Kibaki was associated with Kikuyus and the entire Mt Kenya region.

Over 1,000 people were killed and 650,000 others uprooted from their homes, not to mention property worth millions of shillings that was destroyed. Kenyans must learn from this experience. Why should Jubilee and Cord supporters fight when their leaders dine together?

Maybe the time has come for us to reduce our political parties. We should have only two major parties to which every Kenyan will be expected to belong. This will reduce the animosity the country has been witnessing.