Ethnicity in Kenya

(What does it mean to you and Kenya whether the US considers this to be ethnic cleansing?) These are all politically loaded. Both sides are seeking to establish legitimacy for the claim of who’s better, stronger. (You have written that every Kenyan is a split personality�what does that mean?) Virtually every Kenyan has a language they share with their tribe, then there’s a national language which we all share, and then you have English which is the official language and is the colonial language and the language of authority. Now what happens with all these tongues is complicated. Mother tongues have gone underground sort of, but is used for a cultural camaraderie or other reasons. But Kenyans have always been embarrassed of their mother tongues. There’s a fear that naming individual tribes is taboo or harmful or embarrassing, that it doesn’t belong in the national discourse. (And the election has basically blown the lid off this?) Basically the constitution failed us. all the threats then become paranoia. All this is a byproduct of a failure of a constitution. There’s a clear political and structural problem behind this. What we have in Kenya is an imperial presidency. (It must be difficult for you when dealing with stereotypes. You’re Kikuyu yet you’ve said at some point you might have to find yourself in a Kikuyu space. Meaning?) I have been trying to be scrupulous in trying to see each side of the story. As people get killed and get removed from one area or another, it becomes more difficult to talk about being reasonable. I don’t have such feelings right now, but you can see how it’s going in that direction.