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The Nairobian

Let's make Kenya an oasis of unity and peaceful diversity

Opinion

By Benedict Toroitich | Apr 02, 2025

**Opposition leaders Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua and Eugene Wamalwa during a press briefing in Nairobi on April 1, 2025.** [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Consider the rich flora and fauna that God has given us: Rivers, lakes, mountains, and valleys, flat plains, and even deserts; an abundance of minerals, precious stones, and precious metals. The seas and oceans surrounding Kenya make her a majestic and distinctive country. Above all, we must appreciate the rich diversity of the great peoples of Kenya, including tribes, languages, and cultures.

Imagine if all plant life were rose plants, and all rose plants had only red petals with no other colour. The scenery would be boring, and we would lack the variety of cereals, fruits, and grazing for our animals. Much of other life would not exist. Uniformity brings monotony, as variety is the spice of life. Our tribes constitute the varieties and dichotomies that make up the whole Kenyan nation-state. The languages bring about the linguistic aesthetics and tapestry of the nation’s DNA.

The foundation of a nation is dependent on its people. We are the ones who have made this nation what it is. Therefore, we must take upon ourselves the responsibility to correct what we believe is wrong. It is important that we appreciate and elect individuals of benign character, who are magnanimous and empathetic towards the constituents they seek to represent.

In his political mantra, former President Moi often used peace, love, and unity as his campaign catchwords. The mantra rallied everyone to embrace peace and love for one another for national development.

The idea that everyone else should speak my language, practice my culture, and have the same skin colour as mine, or even be of the same sex, is not only ridiculously impossible but also dangerous. It breeds prejudices such as tribalism, racism, gender discrimination, and other negative socio-economic relationships that may result in unnecessary physical confrontations and even wars. What is notable is that Kenyan society is a confluence of unity, a melting pot of virtues.

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Behind Kenya’s unity lies an enormous and magnificent variety. Unity in diversity suggests a happy equilibrium or harmony between these seeming dichotomies, spanning from community to national levels.

Kenya has strived to project itself as a beacon of political development among the community of nations notwithstanding the many challenges bedeviling nation’s stability. Politics has become a field of predators, yet it ought to be a court of statesmen, I dare ask, are these the threads with which we must weave our democracy?

I cannot bring myself to understand politicians’ intentions when they howl about their tribesmen being left out of government or their regions being sidelined by the government of the day. Lest they forget, Kenya is one big family that has several tribes.

The radical ethnic and ethno-regional bravado being promoted by some of our political elites constitutes retrogressive politics bereft of ideology that continues to manacle Kenya and most political parties; a culture that must be rejected and frowned upon.

Political battles are always protracted, and loyalists are nearly always obdurate. Yet, when political leaders converge, it leaves many confused. But the preservation of the nation state calls for much more than regional standpoints.

As a democracy, Kenya remains irredeemably backward and retrogressive if the most strategic political organising is based on tribal interests. Primitive organising and power construction through the tribe pigeonhole leadership horizons and stifle human progress.

No society can progress through exclusionary practices. Progress requires holistic leadership, inclusivity, and unity. A society cannot advance while ignoring its diversity.

Kenya risks becoming its own worst enemy if we fail to address these incongruent binaries cutting through our national psyche. As German philosophers Hegel, Marx, and Adorno theorised about dialectical struggles shaping societies, Kenya seems trapped in its own contradictions: Divided yet yearning for unity; progressive yet held back by regressive tribalism.

Today we face a critical juncture; a rendezvous with destiny. It’s time we decide whether we will rise above these divisions or remain tethered to them eternally.