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.