Urge to Leave Vs. Sense to Stay; a Tribal Dilemma.

A while back, I was standing in line at KPLC to pay my electricity bill when an interesting anecdotic incidence occurred. It was the characteristic last minute dash to pay the bills that most Kenyans are used to. The lines were long and room packed, and the temperature was just crazy high. Even so, the counter adjacent to ours remained closed. But moments later, a cashier who had probably come to work late, opened the counter. No sooner had she opened it than people suddenly left our line in droves to join the new one. As they left, I casually walked into the newly created space to the front of the line they had just deserted. A few minutes later, I paid and left. But as I left, I remember taking a glance at those who were initially in front of me before jumping lines. They had this anger filled “punked” look that like a dream plays into the theme of this post.

Clearly, their urge to leave was greater than the sense to stay.

Historically, at least in Kenya, people have always seemed predisposed to follow what their tribal leaders (politicians) claim to be true. Kalenjins followed Moi, Kikuyus followed Kenyatta, Luos followed Oginga et cetera and all these tribes are now more or less following these men’s sons. I am not a follower, and extremely rarely do I declare to be a fan of anybody or anything, let alone being a fanatic. Being a skeptic by nature, you must therefore understand how baffled I get when suddenly, every tribe has one mind, that of their lead politician; when each tribe has one line of thought, that peddled by their lead politician; and when in an discussion, each tribesman has one retort; that old one liner perfected by their lead politician. Very few people have extended their eyes beyond this tribal horizon, and even fewer have dared stretch their minds beyond tribal stereotypes.

And I expected those few to be those learned men and women of this great literate nation of ours. But No! If I have not yet said that our Universities are highly overrated, I should be writing a post on it soon. I reached this conclusion after recently going through four years of University education. But luckily, Kaasa, my new favourite blogger puts it best in not going back to Live in Kenyawhen she talks of intellectuals in Kenya. Walk with me…

Earlier, in 2005, when I was a second year student in Egerton University; we had the Constitutional Referendum that gave birth to the vitriol that fed the fumes in the 2007 post election violence. But being in Campus, an Institution of higher learning, various talks were organized to give insight on the various contentious issues that our politicians were peddling around the country, based on their skewed understanding of the proposed constitution. Their interpretations divided the country down the middle and neither side helped in making things clear on what the pros and cons of Centralized or Federal systems of Government were. They were only interested in exaggerating the cons of each others position, and it us, as always, who became the victims just two years later.

When I saw advertisements on notice boards about a meeting set up by the Economics Students Association to discuss the true pros and cons of the proposed Constitution, I was naturally elated, especially at the prospect of expert knowledge from the invited lecturers. Suffice to say, the lecturers never showed up. Discussions on the topic however went on. Unfortunately, from the moment somebody introduced him/herself (tribe) prior to his/her contribution, you could already tell who they supported and their reasons for doing so. Nothing new came from this discussion. Every person that spoke basically regurgitated the reasons that politicians from their tribe peddled. It was so sad and disappointing that I stood up and told the whole congregation off before leaving. I told them to go read and develop opinions of their own.

That has been the curse in Kenya. Tribalism has taken away from people their ability to think independently. Rather than make objective observations, we wait for the tribal consensus of our political leaders, which we then forge ahead with as if it is the gospel truth. In the 2005 referendum, our politicians exposed our perennial tribal wounds, exaggerated tribal stereotypes and sure enough, provided the ammunition for people to kill each other after the 2007 elections while they watched at the sidelines. Just like the idiots people were, they forgot what the real crime was and who the actual criminals were, and instead went ahead kill, maim, and rape their innocent neighbours. I am targeting you today. Yes, you. Have you ever asked yourself why you support a particular leader? And I am not talking about those reasons that everybody gives; your own reasons. Has it hit you that you probably support people from your tribe only or mostly? Do you find it curious that you are compelled to support an idiot from your own tribe as opposed to an intellectual from another? Do you that there is no rational explanation in defense of your support for leaders from your own tribe alone?

Going back to those people who jumped lines at KPLC to join the new one, their urge to leave was greater than the sense to stay, and they paid for it. Similarly, for those who supported people on the basis of simply being from their own tribes, their urge to follow was greater than their sense to reason first, and the post election violence is what we had to show for it.

I would like to think that most youth in this country are learned. And it is because of this that I would like to call upon their capacity to reason. Reasoning means avoiding the rush to take sides. Reasoning means asking the right questions. Reasoning means not jumping without accessing other viable options. Reasoning means consolidating the youth vote and commanding the direction of politics in the country. Reasoning means denying the current political crop audience for their hatred speech. Reasoning simply means taking a long walk, mentally. But today, reasoning means being blatantly unreasonable with these political leaders, for there is no reasoning with them. It is either us or them. No more compromises. No more being taken for a ride.

‘You either have to trust your view of reality, or someone else’s. You are no more fallible than they are.”

Being proud of having a few youthful members in parliament is like hitching a ride on somebody’s car, and then gloating about it like it’s yours. There is always the chance that you will be kicked to the kerb. And on the kerbs is where all those youthful leaders we elected are as I write this. None is in a position to do shit. The other problem with hitching rides is that, maybe out of politeness, or courtesy, or even as a condition for being allowed in, you abide by the rules of the car.  That also means hitching a ride on the ideology of the drivers the way we witnessed in the “gag the media” chorus in parliament. The cars are ODM and PNU, and the youth have already lost with both. We need a vehicle that we are the ones driving, a car whose direction we are steering, whose rules we are the ones setting, and whose drivers are properly vetted; i.e. valid driving licenses, vast experience, strict integrity, and more importantly, human.

In the book Leadership, by Lee Thayer, he says; “Seduction always involves consent and collaboration. Lead, follow or get out of the way – seduce and be burdened with followers, be seduced and suffer the consequences, or get out of the way.”

Don’t you feel that you have been seduced and thrown out of the way?