Cohesion and integration - A way forward

All the pundits on TV and in the Sunday papers have it wrong - Kenyans are not interested in integration or cohesion, and the see nothing amiss in supporting their tribal chieftains in their marches to State House. When Raphael Tuju went campaigning in Luo Nyanza, he was stepping on the toes of Raila Odinga, and his legions of supporters in the area. The Odingas have controlled Luo Nyanza for as long as we have been an Independent nation and, for better or ill, their political fortunes are intertwined with those of the peoples of Nyanza. This is the same case in all the other 'major' areas of Kenya.

For decades, the Akamba were led by the nose by Mulu Mutisya, the Kalenjins by Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, the Kisiis by Simeon Nyachae, the Ameru by Jackson Harvester Angaine, the Embu by Jeremiah Nyagah ... and the list goes on. When Kenyans set upon each other with bows, arrows and pangas in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections, they did so at the behest of their political godfathers, completely forgetting that we are one nation and one people. The halfhearted and insincere attempts by members of the political class to pacify the warring people had no effect. It was not until President Kibaki ordered the police to use all necessary force to quell the violence that the politicians sit together to hammer out a power-sharing arrangement that gave birth to that demon-seed of a government, the Grand Coalition.

One of the outcomes of the National Accord was the Cohesion and Integration Act and the formation of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, chaired by the rather excitable Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia. Under the Act, the actions that followed Mr Tuju's Nyanza forays may be investigated by the Commission and criminal responsibility assigned to those who may be seen to be complicit in fomenting the violence. However, in its larger mission to integrate the nation and foster cohesion among the forty-two recognised ethnic communities in Kenya, the Commission has his a brick wall. Perhaps it was too much to expect that the Commission would reverse two decades of ethnic jingoism that has been practiced by all politicians in Kenya to forward their interests at the cost of those of their voters or of the nation. This has become so pervasive that the Committee of Experts decided to entrench ethnic and regional balancing in the Constitution, the shortcomings of such a policy becoming more apparent with the appointment of each successive Commission. The ethnic and regional balance rule has distorted the formation of Commission, ensuring that not the best and brightest will be chosen to serve.

The narrative that Kikuyus have taken over the government has gained ground at the expense of a coherent national debate about what it means to be Kenyan. There is more that unites Kenyans than divides them, and until we agree that the political class is not the solution to our problems we will be no better off than when we were under the yoke of the KANU hegemony. The economy is a drag on all our wallets, yet the fatcat politicians seem to be doing well for themselves. Our poverty has nothing to do with the languages we speak but the mismanagement of the political class. All the cohesion and integration seminars of Dr Kibunjia's outfit will not rescue us until we can come to grips with this basic fact.