The tribalism characterizing the Kenyan politics was created by the colonial rule, as the British in their greed for land created Native reserves for all the five main groups, thus making them more aware of their identity and concentrating them also. This gave rise to a clear linkage between ethnic group and territory (Kanyinga, 2007: 355).

The regions were developing very different. The ones being designed for the white settlers got improved by roads, schools, water pipes etc while others, where no white interest were at stake, were neglected. Altogether the colonial development strategy favored some groups on the expense of others (Oyugi, 1997). So the ethnic factions, a decisive factor in the Kenyan politics, were emerging in the pre- and post-independence eras (Grawert, 2004: 8). Until today in Kenya most people feel stronger ties to their ethnic or kinship groups than to the national state (Akivaga, 2002: 7), as this institution and its boundaries was brought upon them by the colonial powers. Also in the political arena ethnicity provides confidence and trust (Kanyinga, 2007: 390).

From the about forty ethnic groups populating Kenya there is none that is numerous enough to dominate the countries public sector on a long-term basis. The biggest group, the Kikuyu make up for about twenty percent of the people, followed by the Luhya who account for around fifteen percent and the Kalenjin, Kamba and Luo each about ten percent (Kanyinga, 2007: 353-354). So there is five main ethnic groups that are not very much different in numbers and try to take their turn in power.

So Kenyan politics tend to be analyzed by the factors of class as well as ethnicity (Mutunga, 2002: 42), as ethnic affiliation is often significantly influencing the political stance of Kenyans. Also Kenyan party founders normally build their new organizations by appealing to ethnocentric feelings, reducing political parties to pressure mechanisms for tribal groups (Mwangi, 2008: 269).

Civil society and community based organizations

There are numerous organizations of the civil society in Kenya today, which also played an important role in achieving the little freedom of today. But these organizations did not yet combine their efforts in an united movement (Akivaga, 2002: 25).

A major part of the Kenyan political scene are community-based organizations (CBO) that are endogenous to their communities and range from credit, savings and welfare associations to youth and women's groups as well as communal self-help groups (Wanyama, 2001: 5 and 64). These CBOs are founded as an answer to a lack of resources and services in the communities and their main aim is to obtain those by organizing themselves and satisfying their own needs as well as those of the communities (Barkan, 1992: 176). So it is important to realize, that these are not primarily political organizations but their activities are rather more or less restricted to subsistence matters (Orvis, 1997: 157). The traditional resource pooling groups were transformed into initiatives for social development based on collective labor and contributions, both being more or less voluntary. These groups were favored by the state through additional funds, inputs and staff being provided (Grawert, 1999: 105-109; Kanyinga, 1994: 95-96), but they were only partly incorporated into the development system (Kanyinga, 1994: 95-96). As the CBOs are usually clustered in certain areas their instrumentalisation for local or regional claims is facilitated (Grawert, 2004: 12).

While this could have a predominantly positive effect on the development of the country in general and of the civil society especially, there was a specific response of the ruling class that countered this tendency. Many CBOs choose not to rely on their own, limited powers, but rather to look for outside assistance from those being considered wealthy and influential enough to provide it (Kanyinga, 1994: 96). This enabled the political elite to integrate those CBOs into their influence networks and use them as pressure groups in their claim for power and development resources provided by the international community (Wanyama, 2002: 6). Especially the self-help groups and the women’s socio-economic groups became a basis for those politicians striving for power expansion by enlarging their clienteles network (Grawert, 2004: 12).

The roots of the NGOs are mainly to be found in the settler community, the missionaries and the grassroots organization centering on welfare as well as religious activities (Oyugi, 2004: 22-23). While NGOs often only exist for a short period of time, working on a project-to-project basis (Kameri-Mbote, 2000: 16), the CBOs tend to last much longer (Commonwealth Foundation, n. d.: 42) but only benefit their own members (Kameri-Mbote, 2000: 3), not necessarily aiming at political or social change in whole the society. So the Kenyan civil society or what might be considered to belong it, according to some, non-normative definitions, can not uniformly be considered progressive (Okuku, 2002: 83). The CBOs show the characteristics of self-help, self-organizing and grass-roots initiative, but their ties to the government might be strong at times and many of them have become an integral part of the patronage network strangling the development of Kenya.

Appendix

Abbreviations

CBO               Community-based Organization

eds.                editors

n.d.                 not dated

vol                   volume

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