The basing of leadership on tribe is one of the most fallacious and self-defeating habits of Kenyan politics. It is a form of blindness we have been taught to wear with pride as if loyalty to one’s tribe were the highest expression of patriotism.
Yet, when the masks of emotion fall away, the truth stands bare: tribal politics has been Kenya’s greatest obstacle to justice, accountability, and equity. It is the poisoned root from which much of our national dysfunction grows. I have never asked my doctor what tribe he belongs to before allowing him to treat me. I do not inquire about my lawyer’s ethnic origin before trusting her with my case. I do not demand that my child’s teacher be from my community before entrusting them with my child’s mind. What matters in all these cases is competence, integrity, and the ability to deliver. Why then do we lower our standards when it comes to political leadership, the one profession that affects every other?
It is absurd that we apply excellence to every field except politics. We insist on the best surgeon, the best engineer, the best teacher, the best pilot, but settle for the most tribal politician. In doing so, we have surrendered merit to mediocrity and allowed identity to replace integrity. We have built a system where tribal loyalty is valued more than moral leadership, where being “one of us” matters more than being right for the nation.
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Tribalism has hollowed out our democracy from within. It has made citizens choose leaders not for their ideas but for their surnames. It has turned elections into ethnic censuses and public service into a reward system for tribal patronage. And because every leader rises on the back of ethnic mobilization, their first duty is not to the Constitution but to their ethnic base. That is why corruption is excused, incompetence defended, and injustice tolerated all in the name of “our person.”
This is not unity; it is moral decay dressed up as loyalty. The tragedy is that while we think we are protecting our community, we are actually imprisoning it. No tribe has ever prospered because its son or daughter occupied high office. The wealth of the few who rise to power rarely trickles down to the villages that sing their names. They use tribe to climb and then forget it at the summit. What remains is bitterness, division, and a people perpetually waiting for “our turn to eat.”
A government that works for all Kenyans can not be built on the logic of exclusion. Justice can not be ethnic. Accountability can not be tribal. Equity can not be negotiated through the lens of belonging. A nation is not a federation of tribes; it is a covenant of citizens bound by shared purpose. Our Constitution was not written in the language of clans but in the universal grammar of rights and responsibilities.
The striving, therefore, as we head to the 2027 general election, must be solely toward justice, accountability, and equitability. These are not just moral ideals; they are the true tests of nationhood. Justice ensures that every Kenyan, regardless of tribe, has equal protection under the law. Accountability ensures that those who govern us do so in service, not self-interest. Equitability ensures that national resources flow to need, not to name. This is the meaning of belonging in a mature republic, not bloodlines but fairness.
If we must speak of tribe, let it be in celebration, not competition. Let our diversity enrich the national conversation, not fragment it. Let us compete in ideas, not in ancestry. A Kikuyu should not lead because he is Kikuyu; a Luo should not be rejected because he is Luo; a Kalenjin should not be voted for because of kinship. Leadership should be judged by vision, courage, and moral clarity. By the ability to unite, not divide.
The time has come for Kenya to graduate from the politics of belonging to the politics of becoming. We must become a nation that measures leadership by ethics, not ethnicity. We must become citizens who ask what a leader stands for, not where he comes from. We must become people who recognize that the tribe we truly belong to is Kenya, flawed but full of promise.
The future of this country will not be shaped by the tribe that wins, but by the truth that prevails. Our children deserve a Kenya where opportunity is a guarantee of citizenship.
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By Gitobu Imanyara