NGUGI: Put ethnic politics and overblown egos aside; let us focus on building bridges
Delegates at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi on November 27, 2019 during the launch of the BBI report, which makes a raft of recommendations aimed at bringing national unity. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
On March 2018, arch political rivals, Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga emerged from inside Harambee House and shook hands on the steps of the building. In the statements they read to the press, they said they wanted to begin a process of finding out where “the rain began to beat us”.
The two gentlemen wanted Kenyans to ask questions that would engender a national renewal. What do we need to do — administratively, legislatively and psychologically — in order to transition from an administrative entity of several ethnic nations into a nation-state? Why is it that at every election cycle, Kenyans — professors as well as villagers — retreat into their tribal cocoons and don, literally and figuratively, tribal war dress?
