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It amazes me that in this time and age, tribalism still takes center stage in our nation. While Kim Jong Un is building weapons of mass destruction and the Chinese are launching space ships to Mars we are busy arguing over an issue as minute as tribe.
If you thought that tribalism is extinct, you are as wrong as you will ever be. If anything, it is growing stronger and fatter by the day.
Moi University is the latest target of this barbaric trait that makes us so Kenyan. For over a week now, there have been protests over the appointment of the acting Vice Chancellor, Mr. Laban Ayiro.
Being the cowards that we are, we can’t call it what it is, so the good people of the Rift Valley have decided to go with ‘he was not the most qualified candidate’ as the reason for the uproar.
I dare say a majority have no clue of the criteria used to select V.C’s or the scores scored by each candidate. Whether or not they know what a VC even does is a debatable issue.
At the center of all this are some of the region’s leaders! It is so sad that Governors and MPs could find nothing better to do than to insight people to take to the streets. Are there no roads that need to be built? Are there no hospitals and schools that need expansion? Are there no unemployed youths in those counties?
One would think that all is sunshine and rainbows but we all know the leaders could spend their time on more important things!
As it is right now ‘our people’ mentality will be the downfall of us all. It seems that tribe comes before competence of the individual. From replacing sacked cabinet secretaries to electing our officials, tribe seems to be key criteria. So I ask; competence or tribe?
Am sure that Prof. Laban Ayiro is qualified to be Moi University’s VC. I will go as far as saying he is qualified to be the VC of any university within and outside Kenya. However, the fact that he is not ‘our person’ makes him unqualified.
It is time we all grew up and realized that tribe does not matter. It should not even be a factor. We ought to be after the man’s/ woman’s ability to deliver.
Think of it this way, would you rather have a quack doctor from your tribe or a real doctor from another tribe?
And to the leaders, higher learning remains under the national government and they have no jurisdiction over who is appointed. Their (governors’) role starts and ends with nursery schools! For God’s sake do us all a favor and focus on more pressing issues!
