Our Kenya

Shared Disasters

4 min read

Certain events affected all Kenyans simultaneously and created bonds of shared memory that transcended ethnic identity. These disasters reveal a deeper layer of Kenyan unity: the experience of collective vulnerability.

Key Events

The 1896-1899 Rinderpest Epidemic

Rinderpest (a viral disease of cattle) swept through East Africa in the late 1890s. Estimates suggest the disease killed 60-90% of the cattle herds in affected regions. Pastoral communities (Maasai, Turkana, Samburu, Rendille, and others) were devastated.

The epidemic created famine conditions across pastoral Kenya. It disrupted the pre-colonial economy of livestock trade. For pastoral communities, it was a catastrophe that erased generations of accumulated wealth in days.

The epidemic affected all pastoral communities equally. There was no ethnic hierarchy to the disease. A Maasai herd was as vulnerable as a Turkana herd.

The 1930s Locust Invasions

Massive locust swarms invaded Kenya in the 1930s. The swarms destroyed crops across agricultural regions: Kikuyu highlands, Kamba lowlands, Luhya areas, Luo lakeside, Kalenjin highlands.

Every farming community was affected. Fields that had been planted with expectation were stripped bare in days. The disruption to the agricultural calendar meant missed meals for months.

The locust invasions created cross-ethnic shared memory of disaster.

The 1952-1960 State of Emergency

The State of Emergency declared in 1952 to suppress the Mau Mau uprising is often remembered as something that happened to Kikuyu alone. This is inaccurate.

The emergency affected all Kenyans through collective punishment, curfews, and detention. Movement restrictions were imposed across the country. Detention without trial was used against political opponents of all ethnic backgrounds.

Kikuyu communities bore the heaviest burden (the war was concentrated in the Kikuyu highlands, and Kikuyu casualties were highest). But the emergency was a national experience, creating shared memory of state violence across all communities.

The 2007-2008 Post-Election Violence

The disputed 2007 presidential election triggered violence that spread across Kenya. While Nyanza (Luo) and some Rift Valley areas experienced the most intense violence, communities across Kenya were affected.

Nairobi experienced intense violence with victims and perpetrators from multiple ethnic groups. Eastern Kenya, Western Kenya, and Coast regions saw displaced persons, destroyed property, and loss of life.

The violence created shared trauma: the realisation that election disputes could trigger nationwide violence that affected everyone.

The 2024 Gen Z Protests

In June 2024, President William Ruto announced a controversial finance bill. Young people (Gen Z) organised online, primarily through TikTok and X, to protest. The protests were explicitly cross-ethnic. Youth from Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo, Luhya, and coastal communities mobilised together.

The protests forced the president to withdraw the bill and eventually to dissolve his cabinet. The Gen Z protests are notable because they were organised across ethnic lines and centred on a shared economic grievance (the tax burden on young people) rather than ethnic identity.

Why Shared Disasters Matter

Shared disasters create a sense of common fate. When a pastoral community and an agricultural community both suffer famine, or when communities across Kenya experience state violence, or when youth across Kenya organise together, the experience of ethnicity shifts.

Ethnicity is still real. But it is temporarily subordinated to a larger identity: Kenyan, vulnerable, collective.

These moments are rare and fragile. They do not erase ethnic identity or ethnic conflict. But they reveal a deeper layer of shared existence that ethnic politics usually obscures.

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