A time must come when we consider ourselves to be Kenyans, not tribes

There is a theory that urbanisation and industrialisation make society less tribal. However, listening to our politicians 50 years after independence, one wonders whether time will ever come when people will see each other as Kenyans and not tribes.

Various events in the last two months illustrate a cause for despair.

During the memorial service for former Cabinet minister Moses Mudavadi, Luhya leaders revisited their pet complaint that their community has been left out of the Jubilee administration yet they are the second largest tribe in the country.

The idea that anyone is entitled to a position in public service purely on account of the size of his or her tribe is unsettling, let alone the implied reverse discrimination against smaller tribes.

The Luhya leaders were, of course, in good company in a country where national duty limits itself to advancing tribal causes.

OUR TURN TO EAT

In Rift Valley, Kericho Senator Charles Keter, who is proving to be a quick study in this brand of politics, has also been rocking the Jubilee Alliance boat with claims that members of his community have not received their just share of public appointments despite being equal partners in the ruling coalition.

Mr Keter has been supported by other URP leaders who feel, to quote one of them, that the TNA partners were hogging all the meat from the goat they slaughtered in the last elections.

The ensuing ruckus from the TNA kitchen has been so loud that none other than the Deputy President had to take time off from his busy schedule to sort out the weighty matter of unfair sharing of goat meat.

Turning to the Mount Kenya region, the Ameru were up in arms in January when the President nominated one of their own to head the Lappset project. Unlike Mr Keter who would be over the moon to have his tribesman appointed by the President to any position, the Ameru leaders were surprisingly in a fit because the President had only favoured one region of the Meru County.

The politicians were so upset by such unfair treatment that one of them even vowed never to speak to the President again, which by the traditions of the people from the mountain region, must be the Iraqi equivalent of throwing a shoe at a President.

But just when you thought that this type of grumbling died with devolution, reports from Narok and Embu counties indicate the new constitutional dispensation may not have cured our ethnocentric tunnel vision.

In a recent report from Narok, a group of politicians is threatening to impeach the governor for, among other things, discriminating against the Purko clan of the Maa community in county appointments.

NO MBEERE NEED APPLY

While politicians in Narok are trying to decide the fate of the governor, their counterparts in Embu are past making threats and are now looking for a replacement county executive. Their only concern is that the constitutional designated replacement is a Mbeere who they claim are dominating Embu county appointments.

To resolve this statistical reality, the Speaker of the county assembly has threatened to declare the office vacant, but the Mbeere need not apply.

Going by these sorry reports in our media, we are clearly far from a detribalised society despite 50 years down the line.

We are unable to celebrate when a Kenyan gets a public appointment because we are obsessed with the idea that the position should have gone to our tribesman, clansman or villager. We are focused on the trees of tribal/cultural differences and have totally missed the forest of our shared humanity.

One way we are trying to address tribalism is by insisting that recruitments should reflect Kenyans’ diversity. However, this approach runs into problems when the one job available has to provide for 49 tribes and myriad clansmen and favoured villagers.

A more logical approach is to focus our minds on how to grow the economy to create 100 jobs so that everyone can get a job. It is time to free our politics from the village mindset.