Kenya's 42 Tribes Our Selling Point

opinion

In August 2008 a group of 30 young Kenyans; 10 Kalenjin, 10 Luo and 10 Kikuyu; started an experiment towards tackling negative ethnicity. A third of them were women; one of them was a Muslim, and all of them were under 35 years in age. Each was either in business or worked as professional. All were cosmopolitan in outlook. This group went away for four days every month during which period they discussed the issues that had led to the 2007 Post Election Violence, as they understood them. Each person was expected to engage from one perspective only; that of their respective ethnicity.

The first session was literally sheer madness. Each 'tribe' accused the others of being behind the 2008 PEV; the Kalenjins and the Luos also accused the Kikuyus of theft of resources, political hypocrisy, ethnic chauvinism, etc; the Kikuyus reiterated by accusing the Luos of political hooliganism and subversive tendencies, and the Kalenjins of ethnic cleansing; the Luos then accused the Kikuyus of murder and political assassinations while the Kalenjins and Kikuyus exchanged promises of how the 2007 post election violence was incomplete. Everyone accused everyone else of a lack of patriotism.

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