Shashank Bengali, a journo based in Nairobi, was looking for a mechanic the other day. He asked Thomas, his office’s driver, who replied: “There is a man. He’s a Kikuyu, but he’s a good man.” Bengali wonders,
A few months ago, would Thomas, a Luhya (and a Raila Odinga supporter), have prefaced his endorsement with “he’s a Kikuyu”? I asked him, and he laughed. Tribal distinctions, once rarely discussed in polite company, have leaped to the forefront of conversations in post-election Kenya.
For progressive-minded Kenyans, this is a cause for concern, Bengali continues. So The Nation has provided a helpful checklist to see whether you’re guilty of discrimination based on tribe:
• You have suddenly changed your hairdresser, mechanic or doctor because you resent the community they come from.
• You suddenly stop calling and talking to a once close friend or acquaintance because you strongly believe their community is responsible for the chaos in the country.
• You sneer or recoil the moment the passenger seated next to you answers his or her phone in a language that you perceive as the enemy’s.
• You subconsciously try to gauge the tribe of the waiter who is serving you or the customer you are serving with the intentions of spiting them.
• You ask for the second names of those you are serving as a civil servant on the basis of favouring only those from your ethnic background.
• You stop watching a certain presenter on TV or listening to a certain broadcaster on radio just because they come from a different ethnic community.
• You strongly resent and protest the fact that your daughter or son is dating someone from the “enemy” community.
