Tribal politics is the bane of our existence

Voting for a new Kibra member of parliament takes place at Ayany Primary School on November 7, 2019. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • We have reduced ourselves to parrots, mindlessly repeating the same tribal rhetoric politicians who negotiated their fortunes at independence thrived on.
  • We keep repeating the same mistakes that drive us to the edge of the precipice almost every election cycle. One day we shall not be able to step back.

As we approach the next General Election, it is becoming increasingly clear that our political class does not learn from history.

We are witnessing delegations visiting political bigwigs and pledging the support of their tribes.

Others have styled themselves as tribal spokesmen and are busy endorsing whoever will pay them.

The political commentary is full of tribal arithmetic, with bold assertions being made about this tribe losing out in the presidential race, and how this other tribe must be rewarded with some political position or other.

A few days ago, a performing artiste released a video in which he lamented about our political situation, suggesting that our political leaders are cynical psychopaths and the citizens are irredeemable idiots.

COLONIAL DNA

There was a lot of social media buzz around this topic as if it was totally new, with at least one politician threatening to sue him.

As is usual, after a peak of noise on social and mainstream media, Kenyans have rapidly moved on to the next big thing.

One of the handicaps of our political system is its inability to shake off the colonial DNA that classified all of us as part of one tribe or another, and determined that this tribal identity would permeate everything we do and completely define our entire being.

At every social engagement, our tribe seems to be the mask we must wear in order to properly engage with other Kenyans.

Our political organisation must revolve around tribal identity for it to be seen to be potentially successful.

All our political parties are either mono-ethnic vehicles to power, or coalitions of individuals who consider themselves to be leaders of their tribes.

TRIBAL PARTIES

These tribal parties will then usually seek out other tribal outfits and form alliances in order to win political power, after which there is the inevitable fallout when the realities of statecraft collide with the demands of entitled tribal chieftains.

Kenyans are the collective losers in all this, since eventually the chieftains will form other tribal alliances and continue to take care of their personal interests while accusing those in charge of marginalising their tribes.

As long as we continue along this path of social and political mobilisation, we face a bleak future.

We are boxing the younger generation into a reality in which they must identify with tribes they no longer recognise in order to have their voices heard in the political arena.

Those who voice actual issues around which rational people must mobilise are cursed, attacked, and even threatened with jail.

MEANING OF INSANITY

We have reduced ourselves to parrots, mindlessly repeating the same tribal rhetoric politicians who negotiated their fortunes at independence thrived on.

The average person is not an idiot for not seeing this. The faux intellectual class has more to answer for this state of affairs than the average man on the streets.

You will hear the multitude of barbarians in the Ivory Tower repeating these same pedestrian tropes with authoritative airs, as if they have meditated on them for all the time they have spent in the academy. These are the real idiots, in my opinion.

We keep repeating the same mistakes that drive us to the edge of the precipice almost every election cycle. One day we shall not be able to step back.

Lukoye Atwoli is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Moi University School of Medicine; [email protected]