A US-based doctor has urged Nyamira residents to avoid clan divisions and choose leaders based on their contributions to the society and their integrity.
Speaking at a funeral ceremony at Nyaronge village on Thursday, Dr Dan Momanyi who lectures at the University of Pennsylvania said the region would continue struggling economically if leaders were chosen based on their clan.
He termed choosing leaders based on their clan as ‘primitive’ and said the region was struggling to embrace devolved units of governance since many leaders were chosen based on where they came from in 2013 polls.
“As electorates, we have a challenge in choosing leaders, in the general elections. But I am really disturbed with the rate at which clanism is being embraced in the devolved units. If we chose leaders based on their clan, we are likely to continue struggling economically because we end up choosing incompetent clan cocoon and that thinking is primitive,” he said.
Momanyi said the culture of tribalism at the national level had manifested itself to clanism and threatened to lock leaders from minor communities with integrity from leading the community.
“Whatever we see in the national politics as tribalism is being now turning to be clanism in the county units. People with a good reputation from small clans will be hugely affected. This is why I am pleading with you to elect leaders based on their track record regardless of the clan they come from,” he added.
He said a community that believed in clanism to ascend to power was doomed to fail and asked residents to give it a thought in 2017 polls.