It is high time tribalism is criminalised and handed down custodial sentences similar to those slapped on defilers.
Tribalism should be viewed as a serious threat to national security and not treated casually by simply condemning perpetrators of this vice. I say so because we have seen how it has landed some Africa countries to bloodbath.
I fail to understand why tribe should be a factor in our country after all the efforts by our freedom fighters to unite us under the ‘One Kenya One nation’ .
In fact, we are lucky because we have 42 tribes with no single tribe that can claim dominance over other tribes. This makes it practically impossible to set one tribe against the other compared to other countries with two or three major tribes.
Tribal talk in politics should not just be condemned but we need to take serious steps to criminalise that, if we are to deter people who want to thrive on tribalism as a way to advance political ambition.
If defaming a president is a criminal offence, what of tribalism, which can lead to civil war?
This will also ensure no one uses tribe or race in our politics because no single tribe has a monopoly of wisdom and no single tribe is good enough without others. In all tribes or races, for instance, we shall find good and bad people, thieves and those who are not, crooks and upright people, violent and non-violent people, caring and non-caring ones and the list goes on.
So why should people be judged according to their tribe or race? Why can’t we have leaders with a dream, like Nelson Mandela , where we judge people according to their capabilities, not their tribe? Leaders who go tribal are divisive and should have no room in politics of today.
What surprises me is that when people are employing workers in their own businesses, they usually don’t employ people based on their tribe but go for the best qualified. However, tribalism seems to show its ugly face when it comes to government jobs and public institutions, as well as voting for political leaders because people who propagate this do not have the interest of the country at heart.
Hence, they can employ tribesmen at will and cheat voters that by voting for a tribesman or woman, they will be better off.
I am proposing that it is time we enact a law that will send perpetrators of tribalism to jail because such people are a danger to society and need to be behind bars. We need to reach a point where a Kisii can vie in Muranga, Eldoret or North Eastern and win an election just like a Kalenjin, Luos or Maasai should be able to stand in Central , Coast or Eastern provinces and win an election.
But this is only possible if these areas are developed. It should be like United States where any candidate from any tribe can stand and win based on their capability, not their tribe or race.