A nation rich in potential but fractured by tribe, culture and misplaced priorities
By Rose Akoth
Nobody praises the living. We ignore effort, dismiss struggle and overlook good hearts — then flood the eulogy with kind words once a person is gone. If that is how we treat individuals, it is no surprise we are doing the same to Kenya.
Kenya is fracturing quietly. We call ourselves one nation, but we function as a collection of ethnic kingdoms, each suspicious of the others. Elections expose this most brutally — Kenyans rarely vote for ideas or development plans. They vote for their tribe. That single habit has cost this country decades of progress it can never recover.
Culture compounds the damage. In many communities, an unmarried adult — however educated, hardworking or principled — is treated as a failure. Marriage has become a measure of human worth rather than a personal choice, and the resulting shame silences and marginalises thousands who deserve better. We must ask who designed these customs and whose interests they actually serve.
Religion, which should anchor society, has largely surrendered its moral authority to commerce. Churches multiply like businesses chasing customers. The jobless youth are told to give what little they have as seed money while leaders plunder public coffers and the ordinary Kenyan prays for a miracle that policy failure makes impossible.
Kenya is not yet lost. But saving it demands a complete shift — away from tribal loyalty, cultural judgment and pulpit manipulation, toward a single shared identity built on hard work, honesty and genuine unity.
Young Kenyans must decide: watch the country fall, or stand and fix it.
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