Actually this was my argument against the often repeated and now conventional wisdom that Kenyans vote is irredeemably tribal. Evidence of that conventional wisdom is usually carefully cherry picked. However, one can also find contradictory evidence to that conventional wisdom by citing pre-independence struggle, 2nd liberation struggle, 2002, 2005 and 2010 voting. This is why we have to get rid of this winner take all presidential system. people like pundit love it because they want the Moi days back through Ruto which favored them heavily as a tribe. In the sad event that Ouru survives the court challenge, maybe more kikuyus will be free to join the movement to bring back the parliamentary system so that the country can take a different political direction.
A little off-topic but I agree completely with what Dr. Ndii has written at the top of his twitter page: we have no national mythology. Only tribal ones. Where is our origin myth, like the Americans have? This feeling that we are in a cruel marriage persists with every election. What can we do to change things or start the national narrative? Ever since I read about the Gatundu oaths last week I have been more and more disillusioned. Before I thought we were just naturally tribalist but that really opened my eyes. We are not. We are actually extremely cooperative and collegial and given to unity which is why 2002 like the lead up to independence saw us band together. Tribalism has been deliberately nurtured and fostered as a political tool in this country at the expense of nationalism. That's the truth.
I agree, Kichwa. We all feel equally proud of any of our athletes in international competitions. Why doesn't tribal bias, hatred, etc set in that scenario? Before Kibaki pulled the 2007 broad day "heist", in Nairobi it felt like tribalism was on its death bed. That year then reversed things to the extent that by 2012 the tribalism was so much that I heard people (outside politics) who fought for 1992 multipartism noting on TV that we had not been this tribalist in a long long time. They said it was worse than ever. And I agree because I remember before 2007 atleast among people my age, tribalism was basically a relic. In a few months, it became very present among my peers, I think that year was an evil evil turning point for us.
Kenyans are not naturally tribalist. They love co-operation and umoja. Something has happened and I am no longer inclined to blame the people for it.
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