What Has Tribe Done For You?

It is public knowledge ours is a deeply tribal society, where tribal stereotypes abound. Local comedy shows like the Churchill show capitalize on this fact and this is evidenced by the innumerable tribal based jokes that comedians give. From the perceived angry nature of the Ameru people, to the slothfulness of people from the coastal region, not forgetting the gluttony of the Luhyas . It therefore did not come as a surprise when after the discovery of Tob Cohens body in his septic tank, and his wife being Kikuyu, the public was plunged once more to tribal conclusions based on the event, Kikuyu ladies have a tendency to murder their husbands they said.

Though many will brush off and refute these tribal stereotypes, it is not lost to as how pervasive tribalism is in our society. At every slight inconvenience most people,if not everyone runs back and hides within their tribal cocoon. So is belonging to a tribe and ascribing to its teaching a folly or we just take it beyond limits?

While tribe in itself has no problem, if it is used as a means of division as opposed to appreciation of other people, then that is where the problem comes. Once we begin looking down upon practices of others and seeing them less worthy or backward as compared to our own, then prejudicial views form and hate fosters.

If ethnicity, in the case of Kenya, brings about more division than unity, why not delete it completely and instead replace it with the tribe called Kenya. For if it is your right hand that causes you to sin, why not cut it off?


"It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world"