The central organising principle of Kenyan politics is the tribe. For people running for the presidency, for instance, the first order of business is to get your community solidly behind you. With millions of votes in your bag before even a single ballot is cast, you become a formidable candidate.
It does not matter that you have no intelligent policy proposals, no transformational ideas or even personal charisma. This is a dangerous political culture because it rubbishes a key goal of the election process, which is to vet candidates based on their policies, ideas and personal integrity.
