:Shikoh Kihika’s Tribeless Youth: Championing Diversity, Fighting Tribal Politics, and Shaping Kenya’s Future Ahead of 2027 Elections

By Charles Wachira

Shikoh Kihika, is the Executive Director of Tribeless Youth (TY), a four-year-old community-based initiative stitched up by a group of youths drawn from Nakuru County who according to this 25-year-old- “ saw the need to speak out against the injustices bedevilling Kenya wrought by tribal politics. ”

Based in Nakuru County, the country’s third largest city after the capital Nairobi and the port-based Mombasa metro, TY -which is a membership organisation – now has a footprint in seven counties including in Nakuru, Laikipia, Baringo, Nairobi, Kisumu, Uasin- Gishu and Kisii out of the country’s total of 47.

Conspicuously the seven counties have played out as flashpoints in every cycle of elections beginning Dec 1991. Then the heavy-handed administration of Daniel arap Moi grudgingly capitulated to a global momentum driven by the momentous collapse of the Wall of Berlin on 9 November 1989 leading to a return to plural democracy here after a hiatus of 14 years.

It turns out, that the fall of the Berlin Wall symbolised the apocalypse of totalitarianism beginning in Europe and eventually trickling down to the Asian and African continents.

Verifiably polls held in 1992, 1997, 2007, 2013 and 2017 in East Africa’s largest economy have routinely witnessed political violence, leading thousands of people to be killed and tens of thousands of others displaced in ethnic-related clashes.

These sanguinary acts, perpetrated by politics of identity, encapsulate the Achilles heel hindering the growth of national politics based on bread-and-butter issues. And if not gridlocked, embolden a future fraught with real possibilities of stirring secession and further bloodshed.  

“Since independence, it’s evident that Kenyan politics has been characterized by ethnic tensions. But it was not until 2007/2008 that the demons of tribalism flared up after the hotly disputed national elections which left more than 1,000 people dead and thousands of others internally displaced. Numerous attempts to slay the dragon of tribalism have not been easy. Commissions have been formed, songs composed, and wars fought but still, we are not yet there in identifying the root cause of tribalism,” says Shiko who in 2018 emerged the runners-up in the national Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition (DIAR), in the social media category.

The DIAR is a premier platform that recognises individuals and organisations in Kenya that promote diversity and inclusion. 

“ It was against this backdrop that Tribeless Youth sought to change the tribal script in our country, making it hard for politicians to play the tribal card…. The aim of founding the organisation was to try to demystify the ideologies of ‘my tribe, my people’ to enhance unity amongst Kenya’s younger generation and turn them into change-makers,” says Shikoh.

Kenya is a youthful country with 75 % of its population aged between 18- and 35 years, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OGCHR), with a large percentage unemployed and feeling marginalised in terms of access to opportunities, representation and participation. 

Taking cognisant of the existential fact that a country cannot move progressively forward where a section of its populace plays the ageism card TY also soaks from the knowledge possessed by the elderly in society in an endeavor geared at changing the narrative “ that tribes are the problem by going back in history and using these lessons and experiences to redefine the future. This in turn helps young people to use history carried by the elderly to draw parallels about political participation then and now,” explains Shikoh. 

In a working paper titled “ Sources of Ethnic Identification in Africa “ written by Edward Miguel, an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Daniel N. Posner, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles there is a symbiotic relationship between the intensity of political and economic competition and the salience of ethnicity.

“ … It’s’ clear that as African countries institute democratic and market reforms it will become more urgent – not less – for African governments to develop policies and institutional mechanisms that are capable of dealing with ethnic divisions. Kenya’s recent political developments are informative. After the reintroduction of competitive multi-party politics in the early 1990s, Kenya’s reform efforts have increasingly become mired in tribal politics, including violent ethnic clashes that left hundreds dead. Policies and institutions such as those in place in neighbouring Tanzania – a country known for its efforts at nation-building through the promotion of Swahili as a national language, and public education, might serve as a model for how Kenya, and other African countries, could dampen destructive ethnic divisions.” 

To run TY, Shiko receives funding from generic local and international organisations including MidRift Hurrinet, a human rights organisation based in Nakuru, the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos), VOICE Global and the FORD Foundation. 

What achievements has TY achieved in its four years of existence? 

“ As an organisation, having to mobilise and work together with various government agencies such as security sectors and county governments, civil society organisations, private sector and institutions of higher learning to address problems that bedeck our society such as corruption, extrajudicial killings and advocate for human rights, good governance and social justice has been our highlights,” says Shiko who seeks to entrench TY firmly across all the 47 counties in Kenya with young people at the helm of its leadership.

With Kenya scheduled to hold elections in 2027 Shiko certainly has her job cut out.

 Keywords: Shikoh Kihika: Tribeless Youth: Tribal politics: Kenyan elections:Diversity and inclusion