EDITORIAL (Kenya)
January 23, 2008
Kenya is home to more than 70 ethnic groups of different origins but with a long history of interaction. Most were already here when the colonialists arrived towards the end of the nineteenth century. In pre-colonial times, these ethnic groups all had historical connections to groups outside present-day Kenya:
The pre-colonial peoples of Kenya
The ethnic groups making up the black African population represented in Kenya fall under four main language divisions:
- The Bantu
- The Western Nilotes
- The Eastern and Southern Nilotes
- The Cushites
The groups can further be broken down into so-called tribes. Tribalism is primitive in a globalised world and has no place in Kenya today.
The Independent peoples of Kenya
The Constitution Of Kenya carries the definition of a Kenyan Citizen in Chapter V1. There is a clear definition of a KENYAN citizen and no reference whatsoever to any ethnic group. All ethnic groups are Kenyans and all are equal under the Constitution of Kenya. For Kenya’s black communities to see themselves as Kenyan, they must also learn to see the other communities as equally Kenyan too. Nonetheless sensitive issues remain, such as land and the economic, political and educational privileges historically enjoyed by certain communities.
Kenya is a Democracy
The word democracy comes from the Greek demokratia, from demos, ‘the people,’ and kratein, ‘to rule’, and it means simply ‘rule by the people’.