This archive report was first published on 16 November 2019.
President Uhuru Kenyatta's Sagana summit, held at the Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri, marked a significant effort to address the growing threat of ethnic nationalism in Kenya.
As the country prepares for major democratic elections, Kenya is not alone in facing this challenge. In neighboring Ethiopia, ethnic nationalism is threatening to tear the country apart, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed facing protests from the very same ethnic Oromo activists who put him in power in April 2018.
Similarly, in Kenya, Kenyatta is facing an ethnic-based rebellion from a group of populist politicians from his Jubilee Party and Mount Kenya region, known as Tangatanga. This intra-ethnic rebellion is anchored on the larger discourse of clash of parochial nationalism, with a mixed bag of genuine rebels, charlatans, and political entrepreneurs seeking money and power without a larger vision.
At the heart of Kenyatta's response to the Tangatanga rebellion is the bitter lesson learnt from the 2008 violence. The Sagana summit signifies the new spirit of Africa, the new efforts by African nations to heal their own wounds inspired by the mantra of 'African Solutions to African problems.'
As part of his wider strategy to re-engineer far-reaching dialogue on the future of Kenya, Kenyatta has entered into a handshake with the opposition, led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and is now preparing the country for a galvanising national debate on the future of the country around the findings of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
However, the GEMA-Kalenjin détente that won Kenyatta the 2013 and 2017 elections has given way to profound unease and suspicion, with critics in Jubilee positing that the handshake has let Odinga off the hook, emboldened and given him another chance to fight for the 2022 election, this time against Deputy President William Ruto.
But the reality is that the handshake has given a new lease of life to an entrenched political feud between Ruto and Raila, which started in 2007 as a battle for the soul of the Rift Valley and for ODM leaders ahead of the 2007 election, which Ruto lost.
As Kenyatta moves to drain the swamps by addressing economic grievances after Sagana, the writing is on the wall for Tangatanga. In his speech, Kenyatta made a fundamental point: History matters. Old Kenya was forged on the anvil of anti-colonial nationalism, but modern Kenya is in the throes of smouldering ethnic nationalism.
Professor Peter Kagwanja, former Government Adviser and current CEO of Africa Policy Institute, is a renowned expert on African politics and a strong advocate for African solutions to African problems.
