Kenya Countdown

Well, there s a lot to be added to this fine analysis. When it comes to the unterlying causes, there seems to be a contradiction between tribalism, on the one hand and struggle for resources by the poor, on the other. But, there is none.
The struggle for resources has become very skewed towards one tribe, the Kikuyu, who have more or less taken the role of the former colonialists.And at the same time they have also inhereted the hatred, which was at colonial times directed towards the white rulers.
Why have the Kikuyus, a historically small tribe of farmers, located with the back to Mt. Kenya, which served them as a sanctuary against much more mobile and bellicose tribes like the Maasai, become so powerful?
The answer seems to be EDUCATION, which was brought to them by missionaries which they welcomed in opposite to more patriarchial societies like the Maasai, generations earlier.
Its the Christian faith, which brought them earlier access to education and health. Being the biggest tribe in numbers is already a consequence of their earlier access to the modern world..
Another important underlying factor of the present problems lies in the Kenyan political system, which depends on private initiative and competition more even than the USA. system
Access to good schools and health care is limited to those, who can afford. With another word, to the Kikuyus, which further widens the gap between them and other less developed tribes.......
It would be too simple to put the Kikuyus in opposition to all the other tribes, but they stand more than others for an elite, who enriches itsself at the costs of the rest.
TO stop widening the gap between the have and havenots is the basis for any solution in Kenya.


Toni Kamau

Nairobi
rerfuge area against more powerful tribes like the Maasai,

Well, there s a lot to be added to this fine analysis. When it comes to the unterlying causes, there seems to be a contradiction between tribalism, on the one hand and struggle for resources by the poor, on the other. But, there is none.
The struggle for resources has become very skewed towards one tribe, the Kikuyu, who have more or less taken the role of the former colonialists.And at the same time they have also inhereted the hatred, which was at colonial times directed towards the white rulers.
Why have the Kikuyus, a historically small tribe of farmers, located with the back to Mt. Kenya, which served them as a sanctuary against much more mobile and bellicose tribes like the Maasai, become so powerful?
The answer seems to be EDUCATION, which was brought to them by missionaries which they welcomed in opposite to more patriarchial societies like the Maasai, generations earlier.
Its the Christian faith, which brought them earlier access to education and health. Being the biggest tribe in numbers is already a consequence of their earlier access to the modern world..
Another important underlying factor of the present problems lies in the Kenyan political system, which depends on private initiative and competition more even than the USA. system
Access to good schools and health care is limited to those, who can afford. With another word, to the Kikuyus, which further widens the gap between them and other less developed tribes.......
It would be too simple to put the Kikuyus in opposition to all the other tribes, but they stand more than others for an elite, who enriches itsself at the costs of the rest.
TO stop widening the gap between the have and havenots is the basis for any solution in Kenya.


Toni Kamau

Nairobi
rerfuge area against more powerful tribes like the Maasai,