Devolved Ethnicity in the Kenya: Social, Economic and Political Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the ethnicity as an issue prevailing upon the Kenyan society and its implication on the social, economic and political dimensions in Kenya. Devolved ethnicity has been seen to be on the arise since the county’s independence (1963) to date and therefore the distrust among communities is seen as an impediment to the socio-economic and political developments in Kenya. Moreover, the issues that arise include marginalization of minority ethnic communities towards accessing resources. Uneven distribution of national resources has led to underdevelopment of regions in Kenya thereby bring about regional imbalance in terms of distribution of national resources, which has negatively affected socio-economic development of the country. Negative ethnicity brings about marginalization, distrust and heightens ethnic tensions and this eventually leads to conflict, for example, the 1992, 1997 and the 2007/2008 post-election violence over the sharing and allocation of power and national resources. This paper examines ways in which ethnic problems in Kenya have been attributed to the social, economic and political perspectives and therefore provides the solution/medicine towards negative ethnicity.

Keywords

• ethnicity
• kenyan society
• resources
• development
• problems