Kenyans are trapped in ethnic cocoons of political bondage

Kenyans during Mashujaa Day celebrations, on 20th October 2017. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

“Until death do us part” is a vow that signifies that only death will part a married couple. At first blush, this sounds like a tyrannical statement. Why should a couple be condemned to suffer each other – until the sword of death splits them – even when the union has no meaning? That’s because the edict is a religious vow that views marriage as an unbreakable bond. We, of course, know this to be a blatant falsehood given the proliferation of divorce like a plague upon the land. The point, however, is that the “scared union” of husband and wife is akin to a suicide pact. The death of the union may kill both. Is a country – like Kenya – a suicide pact?

I didn’t call Kenya a “nation.” That’s because a nation is a normative description of an irreversible political and cultural identity. A Kenyan nation would imply a common zeitgeist that courses through the veins of every Kenyan. We know that’s not true.  Most of us are paper citizens. It’s true the majority of us are “natives” of Kenya but nativity or indigeneity describes not an immutable identity. It only speaks to place of birth and ancestral origin. Most of us are indigenes and natives but members of a Kenyan nation we are not. Most of our people are siloed in ethnic cocoons of political bondage and false consciousness. At best, we are trapped in our pre-colonial ethnic identities.