Obama: Kenya must defeat ethnicity at all cost

U.S. President Barack Obama has challenged Kenyans to stand united in order to defeat deep rooted ethnicity and tribalism that has bedeviled the country for over years.

President Obama, when addressing the nation at the Safaricom Indoor Arena at Kasarani, said ethnicity is a recipe for crisis and can easily tear a country apart.

Drawing from the 2007/08 post poll chaos, Obama said Kenyans must come together and strengthen the bond of oneness if development is to be achieved.

“Tragically, under a decade ago, Kenya was being torn apart by violence at the time I was running for presidency in America,” recalled Obama.

“From a distance, it looked like the Kenya I knew was being torn apart by ethnic violence.”

However, he said Kenyans chose a different path in the 2013 polls by “refusing to be defined by the bitterness of the past and writing better history”.

Mr. Obama said that Kenya has constantly addressed ethnic discussions peacefully and through the constitution that gives everybody a right to dignity that must be guarded jealously.

He cautioned Kenyans against being drawn to tribal politics by selfish leaders or individuals.

“If politics is solely based on tribe and ethnicity, it is politics that is likely to tear the country apart; it is a failure,” said Mr. Obama.

The U.S. President cited deep rooted racism that threatened the unity of America over years saying that the American people chose to stand together and chant a common development agenda.

During the 2007/08 post poll chaos that were ethnically fueled, at least 1,300 people were killed and another 600,000 displaced from their homes.