Community based approach to sustainable national development: A panacea for negative ethnicity in Kenya

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the manifestation of ethnicity in Kenya and its implication for sustainable national development. It questions the resilience of devolved ethnicity in the county’s political arena despite efforts to curb it. Efforts by the successive regimes to advance a national identity have proved futile as all of them have worked to exacerbate it through its exploitation and politicization. Community based approaches not only guarantee sustainable national development but present a remedy to the deeply rooted problem of negative ethnicity that has since colonial rule threatened to ravage the very foundations of Kenyan society. This study employed both the ex post facto method and philosophical reflection to generate and analyze data. The findings of the study establishes that for sustainable national development to be realized, the problem of negative ethnicity and its far-reaching effects must be addressed. It is argued that community development principles can play a critical role towards this end and thereby ensuring the achievement of sustainability in the county’s national development. The paper concludes that community-based approach can help in the adoption of an all-inclusive proposition that upholds the dignity of the human person, fosters national integration and rallies the people behind their own development. The findings will be useful to policy makers, and development planners at both county and national levels and will play a critical role in addressing the social, political development challenges occasioned by tribalism in Kenya. Keywords: colonization, ethnicity, Kenya, national development, panacea