Week 15: The glue that holds the 45 nations under one state of Kenya

The diversity of social norms, cultures and moral codes present in Kenya logically (on paper) makes it ungovernable as one state. The history of irrational state boundaries within Africa is vexing and shared in common by all 54 African nations. For instance we have the Masai tribe (literary brothers) split between Tanzania and Kenya. The same goes for the Luo tribe split between South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. At one time within the Awori family two siblings would hold top government positions in Kenya and Uganda governments https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/47542-moody-aworis-younger-brother-who-was-powerful-musevenis-government.

A past campaign poster on unity. Since then the Makonde, Hindu and Shona tribes have been formally recognized in March 2017, July 2017 and December 2020 respectively. Image source https://sites.google.com/site/panafricanharambekenya1960kadu/_/rsrc/1456165275316home/IMG_36175600671442TribesofKenyaOnePanAfricanKenya.jpg

The challenge of governance is the challenge of finding a shared ideology (understanding) of what it means to fairly share opportunities to everyone and enable every person realize their full potential. This shared ideology is deeply embedded in a social context and where there are diverse contexts conflicts are inevitable - the dream of a nation is precarious.

Different to most African nations, Lady luck has seen Kenya somehow steer clear of degenerating to war. The closest we got was in a 1982 coup which was dead on arrival and quickly vanquished. The next litmus test was in 2008 post election violence with nearly 1,000 deaths but in that case against all odds every day heroes stepped up to intercede for tolerance (Remember our hero constable Mathenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63m6OYFeySI )

In the words of former Kenyan spymaster - Bart Joseph Kibati - in his book "Memoirs of a Kenyan Spymaster"

"Regardless of our tribal labels, we are one people. Over the last 50 years of our independence, a certain ethos has emerged, what one would describe as a decidedly Kenyan ethos. It is an ethos of hard work, a love of education for our children, of entrepreneurship. Kenyans are appreciating their ethnic and cultural diversity, loving it and even laughing about it. The project of forging one people from this diversity is on course...."

This "project" is one of ideology - selling the idea that we are one. And such a battle (like most others) is won by foot soldiers. That everyday interaction and rubbing off of the ethos of humanity of being one.

I believe one strong glue that has manifested in the making of the nation is that of every other Kenyan "giving a chance" and opportunity to another Kenyan.

I am a grandchild of a house maid and I often connect with the ladies who I employ as nannies by pitching this very hope of seeing transformation within their own lifetime. In fact for my family the transformation happened within one generation with the stability achieved by my mother (and the primary vehicle of change was her education which is the Kenyan story for many other where school fees was a "society project" with angels always coming through to keep the candle of hope burning).

In quite a number of cases these angels were not family and did not have any obligation to be kind beyond humanity sake. The Asian community (that was in 2017 recognized as the 44 tribe) has been particularly strong in this glue. For my family's case it was an Asian lady who accepted to hire my 6 month's pregnant starving grandmother in the 1960's knowing too well she was no good for much work and choosing to pay her not the going market rate of maize and beans to feed just herself but enough portion (gorogoro) of grains to take back and make one meal for her other 5 children essentially keeping my mother and her siblings alive. On her very last days alive grandma would repeatedly call me close - retell the story and tell me to always be kind to everyone because her wealth was all for nothing if not kindness.

Yet another Asian story moves me. Of a lady friend we went to the same secondary school. Her parents could not meet the fee (at that time in the early 1990's there was no government subsidy for secondary school fees). She was perpetually on the cycle of being sent back home and then sneaking back in to school and sleeping on a bed with no mattress as the mattresses were only issued on evidence of payment until she gets spotted (really the teachers knew what was up but kindly kept their silence till the information trickled up). On one occasion in her third year of study she was called in to the principal's office and she knew this was it - her peasant farmer parents had intimated that they could not make it anymore. She was ushered in to the office as an old Asian couple exited. The principal proceeded to inform her that all her fees as well as pocket money enough to see her through to the end of her secondary education had been settled by that couple that wished to remain anonymous. All they asked of her is to do her best and to pass the gift forward. She does so to date!

As a nation we are all still moved by rags to riches stories of the bright child from a destitute home whose plight is responded by M-PESA (which is really the insurance and social security system in Kenya more than a money transfer system) and years later they are able to testify and give back freely to anyone because they know they received from every other person that they will never know.

That is the glue that makes the 45 nations still hold as one - the hope of realizing the social mobility from the nascence of survival - uplifting to a dignified living irrespective of which tribe, which gender, which slum, which whatever. Simply because you were a fellow Kenyan. The Kenyan dream which I dare say seems much better that the "American dream" in that it is realized within one generation. And therefore within the living memory the strong message is passed from generation to generation:- to pass forward that gift of opportunity.

The thing that brings so much discomfort with the political class today is their complacency in squeezing out this hope and eroding the glue simply sapping out the air in the system. So aloof to what makes the nation - the glue of the nation - they keep chipping off the hope block turning a blind eye to healthcare, education,....dignity.

As things get tougher so many more families fall off the margins (just like my grandmother did in the 1960's). The everyday person foot soldier of this ideology of the nation with the reality of an aloof reckless self seeking political class who are leaving it all to the wind, feel overwhelmed. Last year (2020 - year of pandemic) my estate's caretaker reliever was a Mathematics University graduate unable to find any other sustenance. Within the same year my night guard hands over an envelope of an Actuarial graduate who hopes I can put in a word for him to be hired by the security firm. My former nanny living in Kawangware slums sends me text messages:

"HALLO MADAM. I HOPE ALL OF YOU ARE OKAY. PLEASE HELP US WITH FOOD.. PLEASE.xxxx. ASANTE" 

I feel helpless, defeated, shamed. So many more everyday foot soldiers feeling the same. The center feels like it cannot hold together much longer. Then comes 2021, and as the schools open (the lifeline of most transformational stories), the political class mandates more children to read under trees in the sun and rain in the name of a pandemic as they continue debating more vehicles, more political appointments, more salaries. The corruption and pilferage sickening and churning the stomach when juxtaposed with the stories of men and women taking their own lives and that of their children because they are at the end of the road of hope.