Tribal Bonds Color Kenyan Politics

2 January 2008 CNN

 Tribal bonds remain stronger than national identity in Kenya, with the country's 36 million people claiming allegiance to 42 different tribes.

President Kibaki is a member of the largest of the country's 42 tribes in Kenya, the Kikuyu, who mostly originating from Kenya's central highlands comprise roughly 22 percent of the country's population and have dominated politics nad business since independence in 1963.

Raila Odinga belongs to the Luo tribe, mostly in the west of the country. They also form a sizable community in some of Nairobi's most notorious slums, such as the vast Kibera shantytown. The Luos are 3rd largest which makes up about 13 percent of population and has been the most vocal in their criticism of the Kikuyu dominance. Odinga spent nine years in the jails of autocratic President Daniel Arap Moi. Fueling particular anger is how corruption reserves much of Kenya's riches for the Kikuyu elite, and condemns millions to poverty. Despite an economy that grew at 6.2% last year, 55% of Kenya's 36 million people on less than $2 a day. Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement is also backed by many members of the Luhya tribe, Kenya's second largest ethnic group, after Odinga promised to make a leading Luhya his deputy if elected.