Every time there's a public outcry about a national issue, the much talked about "Kenyan middle class" often come under fire.
The ferocity with which some Kenyans train their guns on this section of our population is enough to cause widespread bloodshed were these feelings to be expressed outside social media.
"Middle class" Kenyans are today blamed for anything bad under the sun: From refusing to vote to living lavishly as the rest of the country institutes changes critical for socio-economic development of Kenya. But a wider look at the ugly events that have been unfolding in Kenya reveal that we have all fallen short of the ideals dear to our country.
The downtrodden and the middle-class work on the behest of the upper class members of their tribes to execute nefarious activities such as tribal voting and ethnic violence. The middle class by acting as a channel to subtly pass inciting messages to their communities, while the wretched on the other hand act us fieldmen, engaging in ethnic mobilisation and violence.
If the middle class do not vote as many would want it to appear, then they shouldn't get the flak for the wrong choices made at the ballot. That should squarely be on the "lower class" who campaign fervently, vote overzealously and always willing to harm their respective opponents.
A country cannot witness meaningful social, political and economic transformation through class division. Classism only gives the ruling elite the ammunition to perpetuate misrule and plunder of national resources. Our stumbling block to a progressive state remains tribalism.
Those who press for changes do so because a tribal chieftain intends to meet selfish interest, and those who reject them are driven by a false belief that the government "belongs to them" and others are "outsiders" hell-bent to dethrone them.
Surfing the internet can give you a picture of how progressive Kenyans are. However, when push comes to shove, the same Kenyans quickly retreat to their ethnic and sectarian voting blocs. No one gives a hoot about the GDP or the deplorable health and education facilities in our country.
We shouldn't be a country united in suffering and whining on social media. The real problem that is tribalism lives in us and it's what the powers that be uses to manipulate us. Nothing like the middle-class, the real enemy is tribalism, which will not end through blame game.
No one has monopoly of putting the government on its toes. We all have a right to air our grievances on the manner the country is run, whether we're the upper class, bourgeois or the lower class.
Joab Apollo, freelance journalist and writer
@ApolloJoab
