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 features 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 tribes have social advantages, like mutual aid. On the other hand, the tribes of Kenya are holding the country back. This article provides some background.

The big picture of the tribes in Kenya

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, the national identity is very weak in Kenya.

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 such as 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, the Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin, and Kamba (although the exact numbers differ greatly from source to source).

Tribes in Kenya: pretty or ugly?

Of course, I really like to observe traditional tribal life. The 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 mean a belief in witchcraft (and better avoid being called a witch in Kenya!), female genital mutilation, and little individual freedom since the course of your entire life is already set at birth by tribal customs.

The film “White Masai” has made this very clear. It tells the true story of a Swiss woman (Corinne Hofmann) who marries a Masai warrior and joins traditional tribal life in her small town. During the early years she shows a remarkable ability to adapt. She eats Maasai 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 flee 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. Tribe members ‘help’ each other, and this ranges from favoritism in government to 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 heavily Westernized, they are savvy in business, and they led the independence movement in the 1950s and 1960s. This independence movement became the first major political party, KANU, to dominated Kenyan politics for many decades.

The first president of Kenya, 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 departure of the British to make himself and his clansmen the largest landowners in the country. Kibaki was elected in 2002 on a promise to end 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 their personal ideas or skills, but because they are 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 background: 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, he 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’, personally I am happy not to be a part of it, and I think many Kenyans are. they would. benefit from a gradual rollback of the tribal system.