Let me start of by saying that I am Kikuyu or ‘okuyu as my friends from the lake side like to call me. I am proud of being kikuyu, and given the chance, I don’t think I would prefer being born any other tribe, I don’t think anyone would, even you reading this. Tribes are a beautiful thing, they give you a deeper sense of belonging as opposed to just being Kenyan. Tribal life, according to the west is romanticized with notions of being close to nature and ingrained with closer personal connections to persons of a similar tribe. While this is true, the idea of identity, for me is the biggest gain from being part of a tribe. I find those who want to dissociate themselves from tribes pretentious and dull, purveyors of lies and add on to that, a holier than though attitude. This is not to say that their allegations on the evils of tribes are ill-founded, no, they should not be faulted for their beliefs and distrust of tribal affiliations, it is their attitude towards the notion of tribe that I find unpalatable and highly obnoxious.
It is not in contention that tribes have been used to divide and cause rifts between us as Kenyans. This, especially, by our politicians. If we harbored this resentment and attitudes we have against what tribe has been used to do to us and channeled it at those who have made such strides as to divide us along those tribal lines, then I believe we would make significant grounds in getting rid of tribalism. It weighs heavy on my heart, seeing the vitriol being spewed on social media by educated, smart, working class citizens of this country against their peers, just because they are of a different tribe, or because they support a certain politician as opposed to another. Granted we are a young country grappling with what has been termed by some as hormonal imbalances of a teenage country, nevertheless other countries have been able to alleviate the intolerable burden of negative ethnicity. Ethnicity has burgeoned into the green eyed monster, so to speak, of this country and this so propagated by shameful politicians who have identified our weakness as a country and are poised on exploiting this weakness for their own gain, and us, hapless citizens who have feigned ignorance and naivety when 'our' big man says uncouth, unconscionable things about another tribe or persons of other tribes.
We have allowed ourselves to be trodden down by the yoke of ethnicity, put on us by our leaders who seem to find joy and power in our desolate state of divisiveness. Woe betides us if we do not take steps to rekindle that unity we exhibited after Nyayo and KANU fell to the winds of democracy. We were one nation then, unity was palpable, but now, only a shell of it remains, feasted on by the big man to secure power and riches beyond measure. Our actions in the 2007/2008 post elections violence should have shocked our conscience, but it seems to have been swept under the rug, water under the bridge they call it. I weep for my country.
