“I am a tribalist and I cannot change the perception I have for other tribes especially Luos and Kalenjins” those are the exact words one of my friends told me recently when I asked her if she could get married to a man of a different tribe from hers.
This was a mere statement at first to me before I sat down and thought about it, this is a sincere Kenyan who was letting out what she thought was right for her and in fact she added, “ I would rather live single for the rest of my life than getting married to especially those two tribes.”
This was a clear indication why Kenyans will always fight and kill each other as tribalism is deeply rooted amongst many oblivious of what it can cause whenever a difference of whatever kind arises.
The government of Kenya has to rise to the occasion and fulfill its core mandate of uniting Kenyans and promoting unity across all tribes, something that has remained elusive since time in memorial.
Its so sad what tribalism can a take a nation to, Kenya is still laying up strategies and policies that are meant to take back the economy to where it was before the last year’s general election that left every sector of the economy reeling in pain and almost crippling just because one tribe could not understand why the other could remain in the country reins unjustifiably.
But when common Kenyans were busy slashing each other and torching their ‘enemies’ houses, our politicians could dine and wine and watch us from their state of the art television sets as we pay for their own sins.
We may talk of national cohesion and peaceful co-existence but this is nothing as long as the root cause of the problem is not solved, all of us can now eat from the same plate since things appear so cosy between the political bigwigs of this country now that president Kibaki and Prime minister Raila odinga are enjoying the best relations ever.
Its so amazing how the Beijing Olympics have given Kenya another reason of being united as a Kikuyu can comfortably cheer up his/her Kalenjin brother/sister who are well known for running in fact almost all of the Kenyan representatives in the Olympics are Kalenjins, a tribe Kikuyus perceive as the greatest enemy.
But what remains a dilemma is, for how long are Kenyans going to enjoy such peace before a new disagreement arises between Raila and Kibaki because the country might be sitting on a time bomb that could explode as the clock continues to tick.