The Verbal Fuel for Ethnic Hatred and Political Violence in Kenya

Abstract

Africa has been plagued by many violent conflicts in history and in contemporary times. Causes of these conflicts range from disagreements over allocation of national resources to ethnic rivalries over grazing fields, to territorial expansionism in the past, to economic development, elections and others, more recently. Hate speech or inflammatory language, or dangerous language both on line and off line, and elections have developed as major catalysts in recent violent conflicts. This chapter explores language (hate speech, inflammatory or dangerous language) as the verbal fuel that has ignited violent political conflicts in Kenya over the last two decades. It concludes that even though language fuels conflict, efforts to end conflict must go beyond language and elections (surface manifestations of deep-seated grievances) to economic marginalization which is at the core of differences that spasmodically erupt in violence.