How many times will people re-post those pictures?
Jokes aside.We need more threads like this. Kenya is a mess today because since 1963 the 3 presidents and all of them thrived by dividing Kenyans along ethnic lines for their benefit but to the detriment of the people:
1. The British wanted Oginga Odinga to be the 1st prime minister. Oginga refused and insisted that the British must release Kenyatta. During this period Kikuyus and Luos got a long really well. When Independence came , Kenyatta became prime minister and the schism started. Oginga accused Kenyatta of grabbing land. He was fired and declared persona non-grata. Kikuyus were convinced by the powers that be that Luos were their mortal enemies because they wanted to grab power and prevent Kikuyus from prospering. That is the genesis of bitterness between Luos and Kikuyus that persists today and is unhealthy for the country.
2. Moi ran the country into the ground but was able to win elections largely by convincing the smaller ethnic groups that he was protecting them from dominance from larger ethnic groups. He also won by dividing the opposition by exploiting fault lines and distrust between the ethnic groups that were typically in the opposition. The original FORD was united in 1991 and could have defeated Moi. But Moi cleverly divided them to the point where even many Luhyas could not possibly consider voting for a Luo and Luos would not vote for a Kikuyu and so forth. The net result is that Moi ruled for another 10 years, bringing the economy to its knees.
3. In 2002, all the major ethnic groups lined up behind Kibaki. There was a hope that Kibaki could build on this unity and finally bring bitterly divided Kenyans together. In 2002, the election turnout in Western and Nyanza was far higher than in central and was pro-kibaki. Kibaki had so much goodwill all over the country. But he refused to build on it and from the very beginning retreated to his tribal coccoon.
What Kibaki did to Kenya in 2002 was like football striker in a cup final being given a chance to score to win the cup and instead taking the ball and scoring in his own goal. Kenya has been more bitterly divided since 2002. PEV 2007 happened in part due to the bitterness created by Kibaki's 1st term.
Of course our presidents do not shoulder all the blame. All Opposition figures are culpable. We the people including here on Wazua are also guilty of fanning tribal flames. But presidents are in a unique position to decisively tackle tribalism or make it worse by fanning the flames of tribalism. Nobody can divide or unite Kenyans more than a president.
Tribalism is the biggest impediment to development and to safety. It prevents entrepreneurs from safely investing in areas outside their own. It makes us Kenyan defend corrupt public officials who grab land or loot the treasury or are just plain incompetent.
With regard to Uhuru, being the current president , he also has an opportunity to tackle tribalism:
Uhuru can take a strong stance as Nyerere did in Tanzania, banning discussions about ethnicity, banning tribal associations, criminalizing hate speech. He can tell everyone to vote for him only based on his achievements and not his ethnicity. He can come out and publicly repudiate tyranny of numbers. He can use every opportunity to tell Kenyans to stop speaking ill of one another based on tribe. he can take very opportunity to repudiate job discrimination, hate speech and other issues dividing Kenyans. he can create a culture like the one in tanzania where people hate tribalism. He likely will not because he thinks tyranny of numbers is the only way he can win in 2017 and winning in 2017 is of more importance to him and many of his supporters than actually ending the cancer of tribalism that is slowly ravaging Kenya.