REuters
An opposition supporter wields a rock during ethnic violence in Nairobi last week. President Mwai Kibaki's government accused rival Raila Odinga's party of unleashing "genocide" in Kenya as the death toll from tribal violence over a disputed election passed 300.

Don Robotham, Contributor

The tragic events in Kenya have saddened the whole world. We here in the diaspora and with family and friends in Africa feel keenly the pain of our Kenyan brothers and sisters and add our small voice to the calls for them to rise above this terrible catastrophe. Recrimination and reprisals from all sides must end and the healthy forces in the society have to put differences aside and unite. No matter that the elections were stolen - the struggle for power must take second place to the struggle to defend the unity of Kenya.

Most Jamaicans originate from Ghana, the Congo Republic and Eastern Nigeria - which is why Igbo-Nigerian movies are so immensely popular here.

Yet, our political ties with Kenya are important. The so-called 'Mau Mau' rebellion led by Jomo Kenyatta was a major source of inspiration for our own anti-colonial struggles. Dudley Thompson played an important role in the legal battles and became a close friend of Kenyatta. Many of us have Kenyan friends who have always, like so many elsewhere in Africa, welcomed Jamaicans with enthusiasm and open arms. You can hear reggae music any day in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and even Eldoret where the massacre of Kikuyus by some unemployed Kalenjin youth took place.

So the events in Kenya leave a specially bitter taste in our mouths.

But the importance of the Kenyan tragedy goes further. There are many similarities in their situation and ours and many vital lessons to be learned from a careful study of the crisis which they face and how they are struggling to overcome it.

As in Jamaica, Kenyan civil society is engaged in a life-and-death struggle to preserve and strengthen the integrity of the Kenyan nation. Unfortunately, these efforts by the Kenya press, by Francis Atwoli, secretary general of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, by Amos Wako, the Attorney General, by Wangari Maathai, the Nobel prize winner, and by William Ruto, the MP for Eldoret and a leader of the Opposition Orange Democratic Party, are coming after the genie of violence has burst out of the bottle.

The key lesson here for Jamaican civil society is the importance of acting before such a crisis explodes. We are learning this lesson for we have succeeded in extracting apologies from Montague and Warmington. Civil society has now succeeded again in extracting another crucial concession from Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller. This pressure from the political centre has strengthened the hand of the healthy forces in the PNP.

These forces have asserted themselves and compelled her to announce the resumption of the Vale Royal talks against her will. These are vital victories, but we must not rest on our laurels. These concessions have only been won because of public pressure. Don't fool yourself; the minute that this pressure is relaxed, these politicians will revert to their normal divisive mode. This is another lesson from the Kenyan crisis. We must keep up the pressure at all costs.

Rebranding

Neither the JLP nor the PNP should delude themselves that the country will be satisfied with a shallow 'rebranding' exercise which simply attempts to hide the deep-seated tribalism behind a fresh coat of party paint. We will not be fooled by public relations gestures. We will insist on deeds and not merely words. We will insist on a real change in policy in a constructive direction from both sides and not just grudging and insincere public relations gestures intended to deceive. If it is one thing the Kenya tragedy confirms, it is that politicians are past masters at saying one thing to the TV cameras and whispering an entirely different thing to their supporters with a wink and a nod! So we cannot let down our guard. On the contrary, we have to strengthen it.

The other lesson is that we in civil society should not leave national unity to the politicians. Tribalism is not confined to politicians but is widespread across all classes and groups in civil society - especially in the middle and upper classes. Therefore, in every sphere of social life, in our churches, in our service and sports clubs, in our professional associations and trade unions, at work and at play, we must launch our mini-Vale Royals. These must be conscious and deliberate efforts to rid ourselves of the tribal virus which infects all of us from within. Kenya proved that tribalism is not something "out there" which others suffer from but not us. It is something "in here", which infects us all.

Garrisons of the mind

One of the shocking things which the Kenya tragedy revealed is how quickly persons who were close friends fell victim to the instinctive tribalism hidden deep inside their hearts. One Kikuyu professional related with shock how the person who led the assault on his house was his Luo friend of long standing. There is a major lesson here for us. The point is to admit to our own unspoken and concealed tribalisms. I call these the garrisons of the mind, which often are more powerful than the actual real garrisons on the ground.

Party loyalties in Jamaica run extremely deep. They have been handed down now from generation to generation for nearly 70 years. All sorts of legends and folklore surround and embed these loyalties. There are few Jamaicans, myself included, whose thought processes are not infected by these sentiments from time to time.

However, as both the Warmington-Montague case and the Vale Royal volte face demonstrate, we are capable of rising above tribalism. Slowly, a more objective national centre has emerged in Jamaican politics which is determined to ensure that national consensus prevails over narrow tribal loyalties. This has not come about painlessly, it still is imperfect and has involved many false starts. But this centre exists and gets stronger each day. The Jamaican media in particular, are playing a crucial role in this area. Who can doubt that it was the live and direct media reports of the Warmington, Montague and Vaz actions which extracted those apologies, half-hearted though they may have been? Both JLP and PNP have had to bow to this force. Each one of us, therefore, has to take concrete and practical steps to destroy our internal tribalisms.

Policy lessons

The Kenyan tragedy also provides some critical policy lessons. The root of the crisis is not 'tribalism' but the harsh social conditions of Kenyan society.

Although Kenya is more than 50 times the size of Jamaica, its population of 36 million compared to our 2.8 million, and its GDP US$21 billion compared to our US$9 billion, our two countries share similar problems. These are the challenges of grappling with the social, economic and political pressures posed by globalisation to weak, open, underdeveloped economies. Kenya is only 21 per cent urban but has big cities like the capital Nairobi (two million), and Mombasa (600,000). Their birth and population growth rate is much higher than ours and, as a result, Kenya has a huge youth population. The median age is 18.6 - more than half of the population is below 20 years old.

Kenya proves a point which many have made about Jamaican problems as well. This is the fact that GDP growth is not enough to solve the social problems of countries like Jamaica and Kenya. Kenya has had five straight years of average GDP growth of 5.5 per cent per annum. Its literacy level is 74 per cent. Yet it is estimated that during this period, the number below the poverty line actually grew from about 29 per cent in 1997 to over 50 per cent today. Official unemployment is 15 per cent, but estimates by the U.S. Congress put the real figure at 40 per cent!

social inequality

In other words, like Jamaica, Kenya is a land of great and growing social inequality, which is particularly harsh on its large and semi-educated youth population. It is some members of this youth population who you saw recently on TV chasing and hacking people around the Kibera slums of Nairobi - stimated to include half of the capital's entire population - a vast ghetto of one million people! They don't have access to the guns which our youth have-thank God! So they use pangas and machetes!

Just before the election, the Kenya social activist, Nducu wa Ngugu wrote the following on the Internet (www.africanpath.com) about the conditions of the urban youth in Kenya:

"The youth have been left vastly unattended, which has rendered many of them hopeless and disillusioned. Empty campaign promises by politicians that they will bring development once they are elected are no longer sufficient to energise these restless youth into investing their talents in a system that quickly forgets about them after election day. Many have, therefore, resorted to or redirected their young energies to social vices that if left unchecked for much longer, will fester into social chaos. "

Prophetic words. Take sleep and mark death!