EVERY tribe in Kenya is unique and indispensable. The 42 tribes and 60 dialects are like various foodstuffs that make a balance diet.
We celebrate Prof Ngugi wa Thiong' o as a literary icon, Tegla Loroupe as a sturdy athlete, Prof Ali Mazrui as an internationally recognised scholar and Prof Wangari Maathai as a Nobel Peace Prize winner notwithstanding their tribes.
When we need medical attention we seek a qualified doctor. When making a choice for a school for our children we settle for excellent teachers. In these choices tribe is not a factor! For long we have been "blaming" colonial stereotypes -_colonialists who labeled the Akamba as soldiers and sexists, the Luo as dependable but conceited, the Luyia as loyal but ambivalent and Abagusii as preposterous. In fact our former rulers were just documenting their prejudiced view as they scrambled for our resources: To divide and rule us. But if someone bought for you unfitting attire 44 years ago it is your shame for not replacing it with a fitting one. But yes, every tribe in Kenya is unique: The Kalenjin dominate the world of athletics; the Kisiis and the Kikuyus "lubricate the 'wheels of business, entrepreneurship and farming", the Maasai as "pastoralists who perpetuate a culture that magnetises tourists" -and the Luo as "fishermen and revered professionals". Kenya is like a body with many parts (tribes and people) meeting various functions; but, each is indispensable, thus, a need for unity in diversity.
As no part of the body brags to Kenyatta be more important than the other, so we too. No tribe has a room to look down upon any other, Yes, in political leadership. William Summer an American sociologist, coined the term ethnocentrism to define a person or a group of people who use their culture as yardstick to measure the beauty or nobleness of other 'cultures.
For us Kenya, one can coin tribocentrism,· where one tribe thinks it is superior while others are inferior. Yet In essence, this tribocentrism seeks to destroy' the uniqueness or the differences of all other tribes link make them absolute.
Since 1992, Kenya has been witnessing tribal clashes every election year. We have lost a lot of lives, families displaced and their socio-economic and political contribution held hostage.
Tribocentrism in Kenyan context is a cancerous where leadership qualities are sacrificed at the alter of one's tribe. The fluid composition of our political parties coupled with raw ambition for power from our political leaders leaves no room to dialogue away out of tribal parties and forge into political institutions where national interests are met.
The two horses ODM- Kenya and Narc-Kenya are yet to con-' vince that they have gone beyond tribal chiefs syndrome-that has let Kenya political parties. to be defined by the proverbial story of Simion Makonde.
Visions from' aspiring presidential1candidates are devoid of' practical strategies to deal with this dragon' of tribalism. It is the same promise our fathers heard from Kenyatta, Moi preached and Kibaki is singing. "Tribalism is an enemy my government cannot tolerate,"· while the menace is persisting with greater momentum.
If, during Moi's reign, the Kalenjinstook the lion's share of the top echelon at the state corporations judiciary, provincial administration and civil service, now it's the Kikuyus, how else can we trust other presidential candidates who are reading from the same script? Why don't we constitutionalise that every tribe should produce at least two or three permanent secretaries, yes, into all Government appointments, because even the Ogiek and Malakotel have produced individual with merit?
Walk to any nursery or primary school, children sing, play and make friends without tribal considerations. But come to our 'universities; the seed is already sown in spite of the knowledge synthesis taking place - you can feel the bite of tribalism, what happens to innocent tribal childhood?
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