Social Changes, Eroding Traditions Spur Violence in Tribal-Based Kenyan Society

A woman hacks off her husband’s head with an ax because he gave his dinner to the dog.

A middle-aged man slaughters his cattle and cuts down his banana trees before hanging himself.

A father wraps his son’s hands in kerosene-soaked rags before setting them afire because he suspected the 10-year-old of stealing 20 shillings--the equivalent of $1.

Such violence is increasingly common in this East African nation, according to psychiatrists, sociologists and social workers who blame rapid social changes for the tales of destruction, mutilation and death that appear regularly in local newspapers.

Emphasis on Money

The traditional underpinnings of this tribal-based society are being eroded, these experts say, as young men migrate to cities where jobs are rare and as relationships based on money suffuse a rural society ruled only a generation ago by kinship.

“It’s a whole question of adjustment to dramatic change,” said Philista Onyanga, a sociologist at the University of Nairobi. “We’re talking about change within a generation--urbanization and moving to a money-based society. It used to be that authority was based purely on age and gender.”

In the new Kenya, respected relatives and village elders are less likely to be consulted by, or even be available to, men and women feeling overwhelmed by poverty and family problems. Old folklore provides few answers to people under new kinds of stress.

Rising Prices, Few Jobs

The result is a society less able to cope with rising prices, too few jobs, too little land and increasingly elusive educational opportunities, say Onyanga and others.

Probably the most important support system to deteriorate has been the local group of aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents, cousins and siblings who provided emotional, physical and financial support.

“The extended family system has been the basis of security traditionally in this country throughout generations,” said Sam Gatere, a psychologist. He said its disintegration has left people feeling “very insecure.”

“My father, if he did not have a job, knew that his brother would take care of him,” said Gatere. “Today, not at all. Now it’s everyone for himself.”

Women Fend for Themselves

Men have left rural areas in search of salaried work in the cities, leaving the women to fend for themselves and their families, run the farm and see to community matters traditionally handled by man.

“That straightaway means the family dynamics change. The head of the family shifts from the man to the wife. This is most strange for Africa,” said Gatere, who produces a nationally broadcast radio show on social problems.

University education, traditionally seen as a way to get off the farm and into a salaried position, is becoming increasingly expensive. And with a population expected to double in the next 16 years, an education no longer provides the promise of a better life it once did.

To accommodate the number of potential wage earners entering the marketplace, Kenya says it would have to create 6.5 million jobs by the turn of the century.