Class over Tribe?

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 please note that this post reflects my opinion of the current moment and it is subject to, and ought to, change in light of new information or the evolving situation.

I rarely delve into contemporary political issues. This is because, for most of my life, I have been able to ignore Kenyan politics because I was not the base politicians pandered to; I am the base politicians dog whistle to, and backroom deal with by virtue of my middle-class stature and membership in Kenya's dominant tribe. This means that I had lived my life, relatively apolitically; a privilege I know. However, this changed in 2021; when class interest was mobilised in our politics. I am talking about the hustler vs dynasty paradigm. While both of these classes have evaded a concrete definition, an issue so problematic that the 'dynasty' tag was dropped altogether and is now referred to euphemistically, the impact they have had on our politics is...interesting. Not because its' proponent, William Ruto, is the first man to do this (after all, Raila Odinga has been the proponent of the little guy throughout his political career), but because Ruto is the first to use it in place of tribe.  

It is no surprise that Kenyan politics is tribal. We vote along tribal lines, as evinced by the fact that Raila has never been able to secure the Kikuyu vote, campaign along tribal lines and govern along tribal lines. This does not mean we lack issues to discuss; but rather that these issues are subsumed into the wider lens of the tribe (and here I speak in generalities). Issues of economic freedom, the extent of government intervention and in what spheres, education, healthcare and women's rights are discussed through tribal lenses. This is no different than any other political system, as I have noted before, however, the transparency with which this fact is acknowledged does make Kenya, specifically, and Africa, in general, somewhat of an outlier. As a result of this acknowledgement, political strategy is constructed on tribal lines. For example, to win the Presidency candidates must seek out the most votes. At present, the biggest voting blocs in the country are the Kikuyu, the Luhya, the Kalenjin, the Luo and the Kamba. These blocs are consistently pandered to by politicians; particularly the Kikuyu because they host 5.9 million votes or a third of Kenya's voters and close to 60% of the over 9.8 million votes a candidate needs to win to secure the Presidency. Looking at the numbers, any candidate would rather work to get a combination of votes from the Kikuyu and another tribe, than to marshall the rest of the country. This way you save not only time but money. As a result, the Kikuyu dominate national politics because to win their favour, is to win the highest office in the land. 

Yet, historically, only a Kikuyu can win the favour of the tribe. Or rather, it is far simpler for a Kikuyu than for anyone else. Additionally, the optics of pandering merely to one tribe are not great for a candidate seeking a national political office. In light of these facts, is it possible that the class was introduced as a distraction from our tribal politics? A way to dog whistle to the entrepreneurial, synonym for 'hustler', Kikuyu tribe, while speaking to the rest of the nation with similar class concerns? This is not to delegitimize the concerns of the hustler class, but to ask if they are only being listened to because it is politically expedient, and not out of principle. And I ask this, not only because what is politically expedient as a candidate, is not politically expedient as a President; just ask Obama and his promise to close Guantanamo. But because, to my mind, this class needs not just economic support, but socio-economic support as well. Yet, I have yet to hear its' biggest proponents propose an expansion of Kenya's social safety net. I have yet to hear talks of some sort of a universal basic income, universal childcare, or an earnest commitment to affordable housing that goes beyond a promise to revitalise it. I have yet to hear of a reconfiguration of our tax system to better tax the wealthy and not the poor. Perhaps I have not been listening, or maybe they are just not there.

Nevertheless, the introduction of class, explicitly, into our politics does pose an interesting question. If, indeed, class consciousness continues to grow post-August 2022, can it supplant our tribal politics? Or will it continue to work in tandem with them?


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