Elite failure: the truth behind poor development among the Mijikenda

By Jossi Tinga

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead (American scientist 1901-78)

I will go ethnic and dig into the Mijikenda of the Kenya coast. I happen to be of Mijikenda stock and probably know a thing or two about them. Two things distinguish the Mijikenda elites from those of other Kenyan communities; they are lone-rangers and degree-for-degree, shilling-for-shilling; have little influence on government and their home community. That is elite failure. The elites are supposed to lead the community and influence the world beyond.

To be fair elite failure is not unique to the Mijikenda. I blame the recent economic crunch in much of the western world on failure by the elites running the banking and financial sectors to see beyond profits. The general underdevelopment of the African continent is tied in good measure to our elite’s failure to put national interest before personal interest.

 In the tiring struggle to succeed each strives for self. Invariably most Mijikenda elites will have risen from abject poverty. They will want to put as much distance between them, poverty and the poor. Usually Mijikenda elites do not construct walls or fences to keep away their poor cousins. They put on a determined look of disdain on the lowly around them.

It is characteristic of the Mijikenda that their elites have little influence on happenings in the community. A witchdoctor or traditional midwife has more say on health issues in the community than the doctor next door.  The elite are removed from the dynamics that inform day to day life in the community. That in itself is no surprise. That they do not feature at all in the wider community’s scheme of affairs is the biggest omission.

However, their inability to use superior knowledge and skills to influence the community’s fortunes is contradictory.  Despite the existence of formal schooling in Mijikenda territory for more than a hundred and fifty years, the Mijikenda people lag behind others in the country. School enrolment, transition rates and outcomes in the Mijikenda counties are dismal. 

For example, data published by the Commission on Revenue Allocation shows only 7.1 percent of Kilifi residents have secondary education. This compares to 12.7 percent for the country. This is despite Kilifi faring better in primary school enrolment than the national average. Some 67.5   percent of the Kilifi population have primary school education compared to the national average of 66.6 percent. The poverty rate for Kilifi stands at 71.4 percent compared to 47.2 for the country.  (http://www.scopekenya.org/media/files/SCOPE_0001_FILES638258186880881376930874.pdf)

Mijikenda poverty is visibly economic but probably more markedly social. Mijikenda poverty is enhanced and deepened by the community’s inability to develop productive social networks beyond family. It is true of this community that economic networks hardly extend beyond the immediate family. As such, it is left upon individual families to craft strategies to fight disease, ignorance and poverty. There are no community-wide networks or practices to address the issues. Contrast this situation with the Kikuyu Ciamas or Somali clan networks. There are no shared platforms to address niggling issues. It is no surprise we are more than twenty points poorer than the national average of 47 percent.

 The decline of the influence of traditional elders did not give rise to alternative leadership. Instead the community has been left adrift in a rapidly changing world. In the forty years since the death of Independence hero Ronald Ngala there has not been a community figurehead. The late Karisa Maitha briefly took the mantle in the 1990s. Currently, there is no undisputed leader of the community. It is not that there are no capable persons; rather the community lacks a system of elevating leaders to that status. This is largely a failure of the community’s elite to act together.

 Mijikenda dancers from Magarini Kilifi in national colours

There is no single forum- formal or informal- in the three counties(Kilifi, Mombasa and Kwale) home to the million-plus Mijikenda presence that can bring together the cream of the community. In fact there is no single forum in any of the counties that can marshal the top brains and purses to address any issue of concern to the community. Instead, focused groups from elsewhere in the country have routinely organised to take advantage of the same. Nowhere is this more visible than in political organisation.

The main political actors in the country typically nominate non-indigenous persons to coordinate activities in the region. The coordinators approach opinion-leaders to drive the community towards a certain direction. Retired President Daniel arap Moi and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga have successfully chaperoned the community to deliver their desired outcomes in past elections. However, key leaders of the community have remained rank outsiders in the national hierarchy. This is primarily because they seat at the high table as individuals and not weighty representatives of the community.

Individual ability and charisma is certainly a good starting point. However, it is the ability to network different talents, viewpoints and resources that marks out a formidable power. It is not enough to have illustrious individuals in the community. They should pool together the power of their industry to drive the community’s agenda. They have to act together and in concert to realise a vision for the people. 

The comfort of a middle class life may delude one into believing they have made it. However, in Kenya individuals without formidable community support and networks are mere pawns in the power game. Our elite never have clout where they excel. That they are themselves as marginalised as their poor kin is evident in their low representation in the Coast’s key economic sectors. They are not major investors in tourism, shipping, real estate, transport, manufacturing and recently mining. At best, they are just employees like their poor, uneducated cousins. Otherwise they are lackeys of interests indifferent to the community’s plight.

In the Kenyan system, merit includes a system of referrals operated by influential community brokers. For example, there are no community power brokers capable of influencing an ambassadorial appointment. Many of the top Mijikenda appointments are made for the sake of politics merely to reflect the face of Kenya.   They are token appointments. There is no local force capable of arm-twisting government to make certain decisions.

Even worse, there is no local lobby capable of influencing government policy in the region. It is this failure that has seen local issues ignored for years. For decades we have deluded ourselves the Kenyan state as presently organised will of its own motion address the region’s problems. Recently the Mombasa Republican Council, a peasant movement of questionable origins, offered secession as the solution. Clearly our elite have failed to show the commoners a way out of the morass.  

As we celebrate a hundred years since the death of freedom fighter Mekatilili wa Menza it is good to take stock of where we stand as a people.  The valiant lady mobilised the community to resist British rule. Predictions are the Mijikenda peasant will bear the worst of the climate change phenomenon. It is incumbent upon the top brains in the community to formulate a credible response. 

 The community cannot thrust into the uncertain future without a plan. The best brains should come together to fashion a platform and a strategy to drive the region. It is not too late for smart heads and ideas to intervene. Remember; the Mijikenda saying, Mwane mwane yagonya nyoka (The lone-ranger tactics killed the snake).