Tribes in Kenya: beautiful or ugly?
Kenya has more than 40 tribes. Their role is slowly diminishing, but the tribe is one of the main defining characteristics of life in Kenya. On the one hand, everyone admires the sight of the proud Masai warriors, all dressed in red with their typical spears and shield. And the tribes have social advantages, such as mutual aid. On the other hand, the Kenyan tribes are holding the country back. This article provides some background.
The overview of the tribes in Kenya
The family in Kenya is the most important thing. Large extended families live together and take care of each other. Then comes your clan, your sub-tribe, and your tribe. Since Kenya’s independence in 1963, the government has tried to create a national consciousness, emphasizing the idea that “we are all Kenyans”. But as a result of the tribal system, national identity is very weak in Kenya.
The Kenyan tribes are mainly based on language. There are three language groups into which all tribes can be divided: the Bantu-, Nilotic-, and Cushitic-speaking tribes. Known tribes that still follow traditional lifestyles like the Masai, Samburu and Turkana tribes are Nilotic. However, many Kenyans speak three languages: their tribal language, English, and Swahili (which along with English is the official language in Kenya).
The largest tribes are, respectively, Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin, and Kamba (although exact numbers differ greatly from source to source).
Tribes in Kenya: pretty or ugly?
Of course, I really like to observe traditional tribal life. Masai, Samburu, Turkana tribes have magnificent jewelry and colorful clothes, impressive rituals and beautiful songs. Experiencing this is for many one of the great reasons to come to Kenya.
But let’s be honest. How many of the tourists who idolize the tribes in Kenya could live that way themselves? Tribes also signify a belief in witchcraft (and better to avoid being called a witch in Kenya!), female genital mutilation, and little individual freedom as the course of your entire life is already set at birth by tribal customs.
The movie “White Masai” has made this very clear. It tells the true story of a Swiss woman (Corinne Hofmann) who marries a Maasai warrior and joins traditional tribal life in her small village. During the early years she shows a remarkable ability to adapt. She eats Masai food, sleeps in wooden huts, and gives birth to her baby in the bush. But her husband feels increasingly threatened by her independence and abilities. When she opens a small store in town, he becomes jealous. He becomes abusive and she eventually has to run away with her daughter back to Switzerland.
Tribes in Kenya Business and politics
In addition to culture, tribes play a major role in business and politics. Members of the tribe ‘help’ each other, and this ranges from favoritism in government and covering up each other’s criminal activities.
The Kikuyu dominate both business and politics. There are several reasons: they are the largest tribe, they have become largely Westernized, they are astute in business, and they led the independence movement in the 1950s and 1960s. This independence movement became the first major political party, KANU, which dominated Kenyan politics for many decades.
Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, as well as the current president, Mwai Kibaki, are Kikuyu, and both have shown clear favoritism, if not outright corruption, towards members of their tribe. Kenyatta used the land reforms after the British left to make himself and his clansmen the largest landowners in the country. Kibaki was elected in 2002 on a promise to stamp out pervasive corruption, but once in office he did little to combat it. Instead, he adopted members of his Kikuyu clan throughout his administration. These people are known as the “Mount Kenya Maffia”, after the region of origin of the Kikuyu around this mountain.
Many voters support a political candidate not because of his personal ideas or abilities, but because he is from the same tribe. Political parties are based on tribes, not ideas. Elections often come down to the question: which tribe is going to exploit the other tribes? The 2007-2008 electoral struggles in Kenya also had a tribal undertone: many non-Kikuyu voters thought that the Kikuyu (22% of the population) had “eaten enough” (slang for stealing government funds) under the Kibaki government, and therefore supported a politician from the Luo tribe (Raila Odinga).
While some people in the West romanticize tribal life, seeing it as a ‘purer’ lifestyle that is more social and ‘closer to nature’, I am personally happy not to be a part of it, and I think many Kenyans do. they would do benefit from a gradual rollback of the tribal system.