Tribalism

Tribalism- Koh Yi Sheng Ants, millions and millions of ants, each individual belonging to a nest, and each nest belongs to a specific type of species. Same goes to tribalism. Tribalism is where people with the same thoughts and principles live together in a social organization called tribes. Same as ants, these people are strongly ethnical and extremely loyal to their tribes, even if it means sacrificing their lives. Kenya is a country where majority of its nations are involved in tribalism. Although the history of tribalism in Kenya couldn’t be tracked down to the ancient times, which suggests that Kenya is quite new to tribalism, there are many conflicts happening between the tribes, where people from different tribes are always insulting and criticizing each other due to their different thoughts and mindsets influenced by their respective tribes. In some occasions, these small actions will lead to big brutal wars which involve fighting and killing. For instance, in the year 2007, Kenya had suffered more than 1200 casualties in a war which lasted a month long, triggered by the re-election of the president, causing the supporting tribe to be in war with the opposing tribe. Houses were burned down, people were killed, and it was a total chaos. A war between you yourself might be good for thoughts on decision-making, but however, in the scale of a nation, it is not. Kenya used to be in harmony; however this generation of the nation is not able to be united due to political issues where the government is very hard to be chosen as everyone is fighting to control the state. It will not make much difference in politics due to the hatred of one another’s tribes, including the governments. Also, in order to hold an election for the government, the country must be prepared to give the prices and to face the consequences as tribes will disagree with one another, with everyone suggesting that their tribe leader should lead the country, triggering a lot of conflicts