Is it a class war in Kenya?

asked my friend K over dinner last night. He's one of the rare friends who can take on both the full spectrum of what I'm feeling, as well as the multilayered political and economic complexity of the issues at stake.

This seminar by Kiama Karaa and Karanja Mbugua, at the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, gives the best perspective I've read to date on the question.

Excerpts:

...the powerful and dominant class [in Kenya] deliberately used the identity of ethnicity to persuade and entrench a notion of collective responsibility. Mirroring their gains in the context of their tribes and any criticism as an onslaught on the whole tribe(s) holding power at a particular moment. Kenyatta set the fertile
ground for this with the rise of the infamous “Kiambu/Kikuyu” mafia that held sway in his government while Moi and Kibaki have only managed to deepen this, albeit in different shades.

Hence, valid discussions around equality, equity, social development and societal wellbeing are projected as a primordial competition of one tribe trying to gain the upper hand over the other. A misnomer that unfortunately even the international journalists, commentators and observers of Africa seem to buy hook, line and sinker!

The 2007 election has to be seen in the backdrop of sustained pressure to correct these historical injustices. [ ]... the Kenyan people were united in the conviction that they could correct these historical injustices through their democratic power. The ballot. As shown by the intensity of the political campaigns, the large voter turnout, the patience exhibited at the voting centers, the level of youth participation, ultimately the voting patterns exhibited and the massive increase in women’s participation.