Ethnicity & Political Violence A Kenyan Perspective with Reference to Mathare and Kibra Informal Settlements
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Date
2023
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The Kairos Book Publishers
Abstract
Besides addressing the original and the deleterious effects of
negative ethnicity on Mathare and Kibra Informal Settlements,
within the city of Nairobi, this book also theorizes on the
broader philosophy behind ethnic tensions, and to an extent,
xenophobic behaviours troubling the post-colonial Africa. In
particular, the role of inequalities in causing ethnic grievances,
its role in fuelling ethnic mobilization, its global perspective, its
regional dimension, its national dimension, and its local
perspectives have all been surveyed so as to guide us in
addressing divisive citizenry. By the time we are done with
reading these dimensions of ethnic perspectives, we are driven
to start thinking deeper. And indeed, we are enabled to think
critically and creatively and brought to the understanding of the
problem: namely, the negative ethnicity (derogatorily called
tribalism) and we are simultaneously driven to start working
towards solutions and/or problem-solving.
Put differently: why shouldn‟t ethnic diversity help us
appreciate our great favours from God, as plurality is God‟s
economy for the world? Why should Africans utilise ethnic
cards to mobilize electoral politics? Why should we vote in a
person simply because he or she is from our local ethnic group?
Does it matter who messes up or builds the country; aren‟t they
the same practical terms? In the worst case scenario, we are
driven to ask: Why use ethnic mobilisation to instigate political
violence that will eventually lead to displacements, as in the
case of post December 2007 disputed elections where over 400,
000 were displaced from their farms; and Kenya became a home
of internally displaced persons (IDPs)?
Besides the above, this book theorizes the philosophy revolving
around ethnic conflicts. How can these theories help in
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understanding ethnic conflicts? The author has ably strived to
make sense out of this. In a nutshell, negative ethnicity is caused
by lack of vision among the leaders and/or elites of society. In
some cases, historical injustices, rooted in colonial hegemony,
have had their share of promoting ethnic divisions and
conflicts. Take for instance, the amalgamation of Nigeria of
1914, for instance. Yes, it created the North and South, can we
view it as a marriage of inconvenience, particularly when we
recall the terrorist activities in the north? Certainly, the
amalgamation of North and South Sudan since 1956 left a scar
within the rank-and-file of Southerners, the black Africans, who
felt that the Arabs in northern part were enslaving them. This
resulted in endless wars between the Arabs and the black
Africans. In 1983, the Sudanese People‟s Liberation Army (SPLA)
was formed so as to battle the then Arab-dominated
government of the northern Sudan. This was followed by the
formation of the Sudan People‟s Liberation Movement (SPLM),
as the political wing of SPLA. The formation of SPLM on 16th
May 1983 came after the Arab-dominated Sudan‟s government
reneged on the so-called Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972. This
agreement was previously signed by the then Sudanese
President Gaafar Nimeiry (1930-2009), who reigned from 1969 to
1985, and the then rebel movement, Anyanya leader, Joseph
Lagu, on 27th February 1972. It is in this Addis Ababa Agreement
where the Southern Sudanese were to be given economic,
social, political, religious, and educational rights. The signing of
the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 had thus brought down the
long ranging conflict.
Prior to this, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan had ceased after
independence in 1956, as it now became Sudan. This came
after both the Egyptian and the British governments recognised
Sudan as an independent country; and eventually terminated
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their respective shares of sovereignty over it. Reneging on the
1972 Addis Ababa Agreement of recognising the Southern
Sudanese religiosity by Field Marshal Jaafar Muhammad
Nimeiry (1930-2009), who served as President from 25 May 1969
to 6 April 1985, and his decision to begin Islamist rule, speaks for
the nature of African conflicts: a phenomenon where we
„suspend‟ our governing „constitutions‟ from family to national
levels without any iota of shame. Ripples are that we become
our own enemies who fuels conflicts that can be ethnic, racial,
social, political or xenophobic based. Thus the Sudanese case,
of reneging on a memorandum of understanding, ushered in a
conflict between the practitioners of Islam religion (northerners)
and the Christians and traditionalist of South Sudan, a
contestation that did not die till 2011 when South Sudan
became an independent country under the SPLA/SPLM in 2011.
Back to negative ethnicity, we appreciate that conflicts are also
caused by religious intolerance, as the Sudanese case has
demonstrated. Religious intolerance is manifested by blind
religiosity or blind denominationalism that doesn‟t see anything
good in others. Equally, blind ethnic loyalty doesn‟t see
anything good in other ethnic groups existing in the same
country. It is a psychological disorder that needs to be
diagnosed through public education. As a social construct, it
can be deconstructed through re-educating, de-education, and
be eventually reconstructed for the betterment of society. A
society that fails to educate people on the dangers of negative
ethnicity or racial-national prejudices faces extinction from the
map of the world. The height of madness in any nation reaches
its climax when a notoriously religious continent and her
countries allow religion to become the opium of, and for the
people, thereby eulogizing religio-denominational intolerance
and dehumanisations. When politicians use religion to confuse
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the vulnerable poor-weak-and-hungry citizenry, as they strive to
promote the Big Man‟s Syndrome and/or Messianic political
leaderships, the true rapture gets closer and closer. It could as
well mark the proverbial “last days.” Are we under borrowed
time? In Uganda, the contestations between the Anglicans who
were mainly members of Milton Obote‟s (1925-2005) Uganda
People‟s Congress versus the Democratic Party under
Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere (1932-2022), whose supporters were
mainly Catholics, polarised Uganda for a long time; and has
remained a wound that takes long to heal. When a religiousinclined society views some politicians as Mosaic-Messiah‟s,
while their contestants are effectively portrayed as Devilincarnates, it becomes a preparatory route for ending the life of
a nation. Besides this, all forms of marginalization, resource
control, and lack of vision among the emerging leaderships in
Africa, must be re-evaluated from time to time so as to ensure
that ethnic plurality does not become a curse. Rather, our rich
cultural diversity has to remain our strength rather than as our
weakness; and indeed, it has to remain the source of health and
wealth of a nation.
Having said this, I wish to recommend Justus K. Musya‟s book:
“Ethnicity & Political Violence: A Kenyan Perspective with
Reference to Mathare and Kibra Informal Settlements.” It brings
back the theme of Ethnicity that ought to be addressed from
time to time. With negative ethnicity, ethnic balkanisation,
banditry, refugee crisis, religious intolerance, narcotics,
dangerous liquor, terrorism, economic mismanagement,
suspicious and mysterious pandemics, and bad politics,
threatening the very existence of the African populace in the
twenty-first century, a sharp-shooter, of Musya‟s level, is needed
to outfox the enemy; and eventually call the society back to its
conscience. We thus need the likes of Musya to come and say:
“Look here! We are staring at danger; hence stop mishandling
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ethnic cards. Use it to enrich the society rather than impoverish
the very society that God so much loved.” The book is
recommendable to scholars of all nations under the sun!
Referring to the Africanist scholars in particular, the aspiring
scholars, and readers and leaders of all walks of life. This is your
book, and indeed it is a little encyclopaedia on how to handle
the ethnic card
Description
Book
Keywords
Ethnicity, Political Violence, Kenyan Perspective, Mathare, Kibra, Informal Settlements
Citation
Musya, J. (2023). Ethnicity & Political Violence A Kenyan Perspective with Reference to Mathare and Kibra Informal Settlements. The Kairos Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23770944