Why Africans should rebuild the foundation of their nations now

Let us begin with an uncomfortable truth. Most African nation-states, Kenya included, are not truly sovereign. In fact, they were never designed to be.

They are artefacts of a colonial experiment that had no intention of building strong, self-governing nations. Instead, these states were configured to be eternally fragmented, eternally dependent, and eternally divided. Their architecture was built on the foundation of division, not unity. The cracks we see today including tribal voting patterns, political instability and resource-driven conflicts are not simply flaws in leadership. They are symptoms of a structure never meant to function independently.

In Kenya, political campaigns operate less like policy debates and more like ethnic mobilisations. The numbers do not lie. According to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, the five largest ethnic groups – the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Luo, and Kamba – make up over 70 per cent of the population. Every electoral cycle is choreographed around these blocs. Presidential hopefuls are advised to form coalitions based not on ideology but on tribal arithmetic. Political parties themselves are often ethnically homogenous, lacking national ideology or institutional depth.

The result is a political landscape that reinforces ethnic boundaries rather than transcending them. Kenya’s 2007 post-election violence, which claimed over 1,100 lives and displaced more than 600,000 people, remains a grim reminder of what happens when tribal loyalties collide within an artificial state. The architecture of division shows up not only in politics but also in public service, employment, education, and land allocation, where perceived ethnic favoritism often fuels resentment.

And yet, African states like Kenya are expected to govern as if they were born with the same coherent logic that birthed European states. But history tells a different story. In 1648, European powers signed the Treaty of Westphalia, laying the foundation for the modern state system. This treaty affirmed the principle of sovereignty: that each state had exclusive authority over its territory, its people, and its laws. It was a revolutionary step forward, establishing a new political order based on self-governance and non-interference. The idea of the nation-state, born out of centuries of bloodshed and negotiation, found its legal and philosophical footing in that moment. But when Europe turned its gaze to Africa, it applied a completely different standard. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, European powers convened not to extend the principles of Westphalia, but to dismantle them for African exploitation. There were no African leaders in that room. There were no consultations. There were only maps, rulers, and insatiable colonial ambition. Entire civilisations were partitioned and reduced to pawns in Europe’s imperial chess game.

The colonial logic was brutally simple. Divide and rule. Split ethnic groups across artificial boundaries to ensure weak unity. Merge rival tribes into a single colony to ensure constant friction. Promote minority groups over majority populations to maintain imbalance. These tactics were intentional, not accidental. While Europe institutionalised sovereignty for itself, it designed fragmentation for Africa.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  As Pope Francis is laid to rest today, let's keep his lessons
• 
  Ruto to Gachagua: Kenyans won't buy tribal politics
• 
  The rise of political sycophancy
• 
  Tribalism is Out; Pocketbook Issues are In

Kenya, like many other African states, inherited this broken machinery at independence. Its first challenge was not development or education, but how to forge a nation from the patchwork it had been handed. The founding fathers spoke of unity, but the inherited colonial state was already compromised. Institutions of governance were centralised replicas of the colonial bureaucracy, built for control rather than representation.

Even today, much of Kenya’s economy remains tethered to the patterns of extractive colonialism. A 2022 World Bank report showed 70 per cent of Kenya’s export revenue comes from just a handful of raw commodities – tea, coffee, and horticulture – most of which go to Europe. This lopsided economic structure is a hangover from a colonial economy designed not for self-sufficiency but for servicing imperial appetites.

Africa needs its own Westphalia. Not a photocopy of Europe’s treaty, but a foundational reckoning with its colonial inheritance. We must confront the tribal foundations. We must redraw, not our borders but the relationship of African States with the people.