Colonialism, Weaponisation of Ethnicity & Intermittent Political Violence

Showcasing Uasin Gishu County, Kenya, 1895-1963

Abstract

Ethnic conflicts have increased across the globe, and especially after the Cold war; and indeed affected various countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. In most of these cases, it has been triggered by struggles for the meagre resources and domination of political power. In Africa, studies on ethnic conflicts have indicated a strong interplay between ethnicity and the colonial phenomenon. This article endeavours to connect the intermittent political violence in Uasin Gishu, Kenya, within the purview of the colonial phenomenon particularly, when the violence was viewed historically as a process and not an event. It hypothesizes that the violent subterfuge of ethnic communities in Uasin Gishu and other portions of the rift valley were the result of the despair and fear perceived by native communities as a result of presumed economic and political setbacks during the colonial era. To this end, the initial research study was guided by three theories, namely: Primordialism, instrumentalism and relative deprivation theories which reinforced each other as the lens through which to make sense of the connection between colonialism and the said intermittent political violence. The study is based on a research project that employed the historical method from the dual perspectives of interpretivism philosophical outlook and qualitative approach. The main submission, in this research article, is that the coming and settlement of the colonialists led to the growth of toxic ethnic relations within the Rift valley region that were initially non-existent. This situation was further exacerbated after independence (1963), as the political elites became the new drivers of the vice