Tribal Associations in Universities should be banned

It is quite sad to note that tribalism still prevails even among the educated ones. They are these same elites who cannot rise above tribalism. Well, where did the rain start beating us?

 In most institutions of higher learning in Kenya, there exists associations or student welfare associations as others call it, that claim to bring together  students from the same locality or community in the name of strengthening culture of a given community. If one takes a walk in a given campus, from notice board to noticeboard, all that could be seen are notices that read “….MEMBERS OF THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION….” Which clearly show that our universities and colleges across the country, have been localized hence propagating for ethnicity making students to seek for safety in tribalism.

These tribal associations propagate ethnicity in every single minute members converge which in turn has advocated for supremacy wars and as to which tribe has numbers in a given institutions over the other. Through these converging of members of the same community, it leaves students divided on ethnical lines despite universities and colleges being universal.

Students who come from the marginalized communities have no say over the majority hence most decisions made do not favor them because they can’t form an associations due to lack of numbers.

These associations are more active especially during the electioneering period of campus politics. Those who desire to vie for various posts, use these tribal associations as platforms to reach the electorate with the leaders of these associations bribed to influence their members with an idea that if the person is elected in one way, or the other they will benefit or favored or even the leader of the association gaining. This is what has brought a major problem when it comes to giving out bursaries from the student union for those institutions that have this program.

When the election period approaches, tribalism gets to its peak through these welfare associations as each association supports different candidates as a result hatred prevails amongst students. This undermines the democracy of an institution. These associations are formed in the name of culture. Well, not bad to embrace culture but the way it is done is in question.

Tribalism is in us and we can overcome it. Students should form more professional associations in line with their various fields of study than tribal associations to better their professional skills which is the main purpose of anyone in school than spending a lot of time on tribal lines.

The managements of these institutions should totally ban these tribal associations and incase of not banning, they should censor their activities and reduce the regular meetings held by these associations. Also in conjunction to these, the management should also reduce and if possible stop giving any kind of financial aid to these associations because most of their activities over weigh good activities. Still not too late if an early action can be taken and students distant themselves from these, we can right the wrongs.