The Kenyan State and the Ethnicity Challenge

Abstract

This chapter highlights theoretical perspectives that provide a prism through which Kenya's politics is subsequently discussed. It argues that although ethnicity is a colonial construct, Kenya's post-colonial politicians chose to reify rather than demobilise it. This chapter interro-gates the interface between ethnicity and political party politics, and state power in Kenya. 'Tribalism', as ethnicity is commonly known in Kenya, is not anachronistic but is part of modernity. The elite and the populace voted along tribal lines in response to perceived fears and the opportu-nities of modernity at stake. Although policies featured in Kenya's poli-tics, they hardly inspired the electorate across the ethnic divide reducing elections to ethnic censuses. This does not imply that voting patterns in Kenya were immutable. Crosscutting ethnic voting took place but was more informed by ephemeral ethnic alliances than the individual voter's decision based on competing visions for the country.