Sonko outburst and reality of tribal factor in political race

I want to write, not as a Nation editor, but as a freeborn, taxpaying Kenyan tribesman.

This is a necessary preamble for a discussion on tribalism.

I am not a very successful tribalist. On a good day, I can’t keep track of who is from which tribe.

Other than the love for money from a large cross section of a certain community, and the love of fun and capacity to dance gracefully to rumba by another, I find that behaviour is personal, not ethnic.

If you ask me what I am, I will tell you, on the basis of my parents’ ethnicity and the languages I speak.

But like I tell people, if you were to analyse my genes, you will be shocked to find that I am neither Meru nor Bantu at all, that genetically I am more of other things.

Ethnically, identity is not a genetic construct. We form the “social self” from dealing with those around us, if you recall George Herbert Mead’s social theory, our mind is nothing but “internalised communication”.

However, I am a middle-aged Kenyan old enough to know that this country has 41 tribes, some think they are superior, or cleverer than others, some don’t give a hoot, others just want grass for their cows and some space to move around.

I watched Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko on YouTube, having missed his TV interview earlier, and I disagree with those who have been claiming that he was either drunk or in elevated spirits as a consequence of consuming various products.

He was an angry man. And being a generally simple-minded fellow from the matatu underworld, he tended to allow his emotions to transport him to a state of agitation rarely seen on TV. He shouted and shouted.

PRESSING ON
What he was saying was that he has been on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s side through most of his struggles, notably the scepticism about whether he should attempt to succeed former President Mwai Kibaki, as both are from the same tribe.

He also fought on the President’s side in the trials at the International Criminal Court.

Why then, he fumed, were some “buggers”, as he colourfully called them on national TV, trying to undermine his quest to be the governor of Nairobi?

And they were doing so by denying him a certificate of good conduct, issued by the police.

The reason he was apoplectic was that these “buggers” were sinking his political career to advance that of Mr Peter Kenneth, former Gatanga MP and 2013 Kenya National Congress presidential candidate.

He was outraged that folks expected him to step down for Mr Kenneth even though the latter refused to do the same for Mr Sonko’s friend, Mr Kenyatta.

Not only will he not step down, Sonko swore, he wouldn’t have him even if Mr Kenneth stepped down for him and offered himself as a running mate.

The only way peace can be made, the diminutive politician swore, was if he called a meeting in Mr Kenyatta’s Gatundu hometown and apologised for the tears that Sonko, Mr Kenyatta, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta and Sonko’s wife shed for reasons that I can’t precisely recall, but which Sonko associated with Mr Kenneth.

Watching Mr Kenneth on TV, he comes across as a man of some arrogance, not a man of the people, not much of an intellect and I see no reason why anyone, including Sonko’s “buggers”, would fish him out from KNC and seek to run him, like a horse in a race, in Nairobi.

Unless, of course, the “buggers” in question are ethnic chauvinists, who are preparing to run him for president in 2022 in the belief that only members of a “certain community” can fit in State House.

PLEDGE

It is also possible that he is being prepared by forces around Vice-President William Ruto to be his running mate in 2022.

I don’t think that anyone’s ethnicity should bar them from running for any position.

But I am also aware that from the past 54 years there has not been a lot of diversity in terms of the ethnicity of presidents.

Only two tribes have produced presidents so far, which is neither a crime nor necessarily a bad thing.

What we must guard against is the feeling of entitlement where certain tribes see it is their right to rule.

We must also guard against a situation where certain tribes feel that folks from other tribes can’t rule, in other words, one’s ethnicity becomes a disqualifying factor.

Where does this leave us? Well, the folks from central Kenya and those from the Rift Valley in 2013 started a cooperation that required them to be political allies for 20 years.

That’s a good thing so that they don’t fight and ruin our country.

So in 2022 Central should not try to be clever, as everyone expects it to, and get their cousin from Murang’a and try and make him president. They must stick with their ally.

Secondly, why can’t Mr Kenneth’s backers run him in Murang’a or Gatanga or Maragua or some other hilly place?

What have we done to have him inflicted on our city? Mr Ekuru Aukot and Mr Philip Murgor were on TV the other day and they sounded like better candidates to me.

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