Tribeless and democratic youth? Political attitudes of Kenyan university students toward ethnicity and democracy

ABSTRACT

University students have often played a critical role in shaping political dynamics across sub-Saharan Africa. This article situates the expressed political attitudes of students at the University of Nairobi (UoN) within the context of current Kenyan politics. Given the high saliency of ethnicity in the latter, we are particularly interested in how university students define themselves, how they view and engage with the politicization of ethnicity, and how they view members of other communities. Using original survey data from the UoN collected in 2018, this article fills a gap in the existing literature on Kenyan politics, which seldom concentrates on youth or students. Our findings demonstrate that although Kenyan university students aspire to move beyond ethnic politics, ethnicity often shapes their view of their fellow citizens and government action. Overall, we do not find strong evidence that university students will alter the underlying dynamics of Kenyan politics.

RÉSUMÉ

Les étudiants universitaires ont souvent joué un rôle essentiel dans l’élaboration des dynamiques politiques en Afrique subsaharienne. Cet article situe les attitudes politiques exprimées par les étudiants de l’université de Nairobi (UoN) dans le contexte de la politique kenyane actuelle. Étant donné la grande importance de l’ethnicité dans cette dernière, nous nous intéressons particulièrement à la manière dont les étudiants universitaires se définissent, à la manière dont ils perçoivent et s’engagent dans la politisation de l’ethnicité, et à la manière dont ils perçoivent les membres d’autres communautés. En utilisant des données d’enquête originales de l’UoN recueillies en 2018, cet article comble une lacune dans la littérature existante sur la politique kenyane, qui se concentre rarement sur les jeunes ou les étudiants. Nos résultats démontrent que, bien que les étudiants aspirent à dépasser la politique ethnique, l’ethnicité détermine souvent leur vision de leurs concitoyens et de l’action de leur gouvernement. Dans l’ensemble, nous ne trouvons pas de preuves solides selon lesquelles les étudiants universitaires modifieront la dynamique sous-jacente de la politique kenyane.

KEYWORDS:

• Kenya
• ethnicity
• students
• political attitudes
• democratization

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Kenya
• ethnicité
• étudiants
• attitudes politiques
• démocratisation

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Purity Wambui Kibui and Elijah Wahome for their help in administering the survey at the University of Nairobi. The authors also thank Staffan Lindberg and Julia Leininger for their comments on previous versions of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The calculation is based on biographical details of Members of Parliament (MPs) collected by one of the authors.

2. It is important to note that the formation of a Kalenjin identity initially took place in the late colonial period (Kipkorir 2008).

3. This paper mainly examines answers given to the questions pertaining to ethnicity.

4. Fourteen respondents who listed their age as thirty-five to fifty-four years old and one respondent who did not provide their age are dropped from the sample.

5. This question asks: “My primary identity is a: Kenyan [or] member of my ethnic group (Circle One).” One respondent chose to circle both (0.2%), and fifty-five respondents (eleven percent) did not answer the question. See the Appendix for more information.

6. In the Appendix, we find that the majority of Afrobarometer respondents under the age of thirty-five and fifty-seven percent of youth respondents with some university education felt that their ethnic group receives unfair treatment from the government specifically. By contrast, over half the older adult population feels that this never happens.

7. See https://tribelessyouth.org.

1. In other words, roughly 12.4% of youth respondents had at least some university education.

2. This question asks respondents: “Let us suppose that you had to choose between being a Kenyan and being a [ethnic group]. Which of the following statements best expresses your feelings?” We take the responses that said: “I feel only [ethnic group],” “I feel more [ethnic group] than Kenyan,” “I feel more Kenyan than [ethnic group],” and “I feel only Kenyan.” An additional 1294 respondents said they felt equally Kenyan and their ethnic group. Seventeen respondents did not have an ethnic identity, three did not know and two refused to answer.

3. Based on 186 respondents who responded: “I feel more Kenyan than [ethnic group]” and 735 respondents who said “I feel only Kenyan.”

4. Based on 121 “I feel more Kenyan than [ethnic group]” responses and 379 “I feel only Kenyan” responses out of 586 18–34 year olds who provided one of the responses listed in note 2.

5. Based on 19 “I feel more Kenyan than (ethnic group)” and 41 “I feel only Kenyan” out of 75 18–34 year olds with at least some university education who provided one of the responses listed in note 2.

6. Specifically, 54% of the respondents in the full sample (1294 out of 2378), 57% of youth (676 out of 1176) and 52% of educated youth (80 out of 155). Respondents who said don’t know, refused to answer, or who did not have an ethnic group are excluded.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Florida [UF Student Scholarship].

Notes on contributors

Narrelle Gilchrist

Narrelle Gilchrist is a politics PhD student at Princeton University. Her research interests include identity politics, political institutions and subnational governments, with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa. She has conducted fieldwork in Kenya, and holds a BA from the University of Florida and a MA from the University of Chicago.

Amanda B. Edgell

Amanda B. Edgell is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama and a research fellow at the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute. Her research focuses on political institutions, international norms and social mobilization. She has conducted fieldwork in D.R. Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. Her work has appeared in African Studies Review, the British Journal of Political Science, Democratization, the European Journal of Political Research, and Social Science and Medicine.

Sebastian Elischer

Sebastian Elischer is an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida. His research focuses on state-building and democratization in sub-Saharan Africa. His work has appeared in Comparative Politics, Democratization, African Affairs and similar journals. He is the author of Political Parties in Africa: Ethnicity and Party Formation (2013) and Salafism and Political Order (2021).