Kenya’s Four Ages of Ethnicity

The role of secondary school teachers in shaping a political culture of ethnicity and ethnic favouritism: the case of Kenya

“…Despite the emergence of democratic elections, divisive policies and the fear of political exclusion has thus remained an important feature of Kenya's politics (Lonsdale 2019). Accordingly, many Kenyans believe it remains in their best interest to elect a strong ethnic leader in order to get a share of the national cake, even if they themselves do not consider ethnicity central to their identity (Bratton & Kimenyi 2008; for a general discussion on the instrumentality of ethnic identities in African elections, see Eifert et al 2010).…”

“…Once an expression of civic virtue and social obligation towards one's local community – i.e. moral ethnicity or ethnic solidarity – ethnic favouritism has thus become the driving force behind ‘political tribalism’ (see Berman et al 2009: 469; Lonsdale 2019). The ensuing high stakes of winning an election have led to increased ethnic tensions and occasional violence around election times (Branch 2011; Hornsby 2013; Kramon & Posner 2016).…”

“…Ethnicity remains an important factor in shaping politics and everyday life on the African continent, not in the least in the context of Kenya (e.g. Ahlerup & Isaksson 2015; De Luca et al 2018; Harris & Posner 2019; Lonsdale 2019; Beiser-McGrath et al , 2021). Research shows that voting patterns in Kenya largely hew to ethnic lines (Bratton & Kimenyi 2008), that rent in Nairobi's Kibera slums varies by tenants’ background compared with that of the local chief (Marx et al 2019), and that public investment, for example in road construction (Burgess et al 2015) and educational infrastructure (Kramon & Posner 2016; Li 2018), as well as project aid and local funds (Briggs 2014) have often been disproportionally allocated to the home region of the president in power as well as to regions where the president's ethnic group was demographically dominant 1 .…”