NEGATIVE ETHNICITY IN KENYAN VARSITIES.

Education should add value to those seeking it and be able to transform peoples’ lives, the university might be considered ideally, as an institution that removes traditionalism from the lives of the students body and instill a new level of reasoning that is objective and that does not limit one to his/her immediate environment, simply put it should help people “think outside the box”, in many aspects the Kenyan universities has served these roles but there is a sector in which it has failed completely, in changing the attachment to ethnic cocoons and tribal groups and an unwarranted ethnic hatred that has over the years been accepted as part of the varsity life.

The yearly elections of student leaders into the university students organization in the various public and private universities has been a replica of what is seen in the national general elections where people vote along ethnic lines. A coalition like the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin or the KKK coalition as famously known is found at the Kenyan universities rivaling the other coalition of Luo, Luhya’s and the “leftovers” or the LLL, Kenyans have the audacity to refer to their brothers in minority communities as “leftovers”, how such a self replicating negative culture came to be can not be established precisely. The question that comes to mind is were our national politicians who have gone through the same institutions been socialized in the same way as the current individuals at the universities along ethnic lines or are they the ones spreading the retrogressive culture of ethnicity in the campus politics?

Tribalism and negative ethnicity can almost entirely be blamed on the “iron fisted” Moi’s regime who used the policy of divide and rule similar to what the colonial powers used in Kenya to establish their control on the natives.                                                                                                     When people are divided collective bargaining and unity becomes an illusion as ethnic chauvinism leads to competition between the different ethnic groups.

In Kenyan campuses today certain posts in student leadership is a reserve for certain communities who are the majority, instead of embracing merit and the credibility of individuals and voting for people who can deliver, the generally “uncomunicated” qualification and accepted rule is considering from which community a person vying for a post in leadership comes from and nothing based on merit and secondly his/her ability to mobilize his/her tribesmen.

Martin Luther Jr’s dream of having people “judged by the content of their characters and not by the colors of their skin” is a dream that is yet to be instilled in Kenyans, the university which should be on the frontline to inculcate such a dream has failed dismally and until Kenyans see beyond the tribal background of their fellow brothers and sisters peace and unity will remain shaky, and only then shall we fulfill the need to work together to achieve national development.

The role of comrade power that in the late 1980s and early 90s saw varsity students take part in issues of national development and political dimensions has slowly been fading away and the demise of the comrade power can be attributed to the ethnically charged individuals found at the universities today whose power of collective bargaining has been taken over by ethnic competition.

It is time some common courses should be introduced in the educational institutions and streamline ethnic and race issues in our education curriculum to educate people on how ethnicity impedes national development and acts as an obstacle to achieve peace, unity and stability in Kenya to avoid the occurrence of an incidence like the 2008 post election violence that has seen 1300 Kenyans loose their lives and thousands others displaced from their homes.

Lets stand up for unity, lets pronounce zero tolerance against negative ethnicity and end the negative circle of ethnicity in Kenya today.

AFRICAS PROBLEMS NEEDS AFRICAN SOLUTIONS.

Africa has since time immemorial been referred to as the “dark continent”, which is predominantly the western view. Time and tide has changed and Africa needs a new dimension and level of thinking to erase the negative and outward looking solution seeking ideology that has for many years characterized how Africa tackles its problems.

People of Africa have been indoctrinated by the western media and made to believe that the solutions to Africa’s problems lies in external solutions in the name of western, IMF  and world bank experts who have no connections to Africa whatsoever.

What Africa needs is massive adjustments in changing the existing social, economic and political belief that the people of Africa bear. Africans need to believe in their capability and capacity to perform and in working out solutions to their problems without having to rush to the western world for help, yes there is a need to maybe, consult when it is necessary and learn from the west but not to let the west make decisions for Africa. The disbelief of most African societies in the ability of one of their own is a product of the colonial legacy, whose effects are being felt to date despite it happening almost five decades ago. I will give an example of my high school which had a white principal before I joined and the white man had to leave and an African one had to take his place, the reaction of the society then was one of skepticism and doubt in the ability of the African principal to perform and many parents opted to take their children to other schools ironically headed by Africans, a year latter the school achieved results that were the schools highest from its foundation. The need to believe in the African capability can help Africa realize development and end its problem.

The Kenyan politicians rejected a local tribunal to prosecute suspects of the 2007 post election violence because of the belief that a local tribunal wont be as effective as the international criminal court and instead recommended that the post election violence suspects be tried at the ICC in Hague.

This is not a simple implication as it seems from its outlook, it’s a multifaceted solution in the sense that despite what history has on African leaders and politicians, Africans need to believe in the capability of their leaders to drive Africa to a ‘REFORMED AFRICA’ instead of creating a new Africa typical of the western idea of the solution to the African problem.

On the economic front this means that Africa doesn’t need “aid” to help end the hunger, poverty and helplessness manifested in most African societies, Africans need to realize that no aid is free. Why for example does the US borrow money from a state like China and redirect it to Africa as aid? Why don’t they settle their own debts? It is because Africa has created a belief in the west that Africa can not stand on itself without support from the western world.

Chinua Achebe in a little book “THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA” addresses very pertinent issues in Nigeria’s social conditions, forty years latter issues like tribalism, corruption, social injustice, the cult of mediocrity, indiscipline and a false image of ourselves that Achebe found to be an impediment to Nigeria’s development is very evident in African states to date and the solution to these social moral decay lies in a change of the “moral deficiency syndrome” to a “moral integrity syndrome” where people are guided by ethics and integrity in all their daily undertakings, this lies in the hands of Africans and does not cost much to make the transformation.

Peoples of Africa need not take up arms against each other; they need to be in a fight against social decay and a fight against corruption. People of Africa need not to listen to divisive politics from mediocre political leaders but instead replace all such leaders with those who are capable of delivering results.

Solutions to Africa’s problems lies in African solution.