Tracing the root cause of poverty among the Kalenjins

BOMET, KENYA

Tracing the root cause of poverty among the Kalenjins

Selling of land by Kalenjin youth to fund flashy lifestyles has become the order of the day.

Elders in the Rift Valley have raised concern following reports that young men are selling land to finance expensive lifestyles. Many of these young men sell land just to buy motorcycles. The menace and the craze for motorbikes is also contributing to an increase in the number of school dropouts

Mr Yego, A kalenjin Myoot Council Elder, said that some youths take advantage of their parents' illiteracy and ignorance to sell land. "Others look for buyers as soon as their parents die," he said in Eldoret.

“We have been receiving many complaints from elderly residents about fraudulent selling of land by their sons.” He adds, “The number of landless people in the region will go up if the trend does not stop”.

So, what’s the cause of this barbaric behavior?

Obviously, poverty drives our youth to engage in every engagement that may seem to them an easier way of meeting their demands. One of them is the readily available land and one which can be converted easily to money on demand.

The Kalenjin was doing well until 1924 when the “Saweiyek” age set 1924 A.D to 1940 A.D took over from “Chumiot”

Saweiyek were extravagant and loved lifestyle kind of life. So, they invented many believes s

uch as; “ kisere tuguk” meaning, the acquired wealth are scattered. Under this pretext of scattering wealth, they married many wives and had many children. If one had 5 wives and each wife produced an average of Ten children, you find one man having up to fifty children. In those days, Men were lucky to own huge chunks of land of up to 100 acres of land.

So, how was this pretext of scattering wealth by marrying many wives possible without a first wife agreeing? It was only possible by coming up with traditional believes that must be adhered to by all including all wives.

Another thing was to make sure that wives must be submissive to the point of kneeling down when husbands were talking or giving instructions. That is why even today, you find elderly women telling the young generation how they used to kneel down to their husbands in their time.

It was of great importance to these old men if they succeed in creating “partner violence environment that support male control", especially "norms related to male authority over female behaviour".

They created a culture that has been named as “domestic abuse”, “battering, or family violence” it is a pattern of behavior which involves violence or other abuse by a male person against female partner in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation.

When polygamy became a part of their society, men ruled and wanted their sexual desires satisfied. They wanted to have a male son who could take over their household when they died, they wanted to show that they have power and wealth – so they married all the wives they could to fulfill their dream.

Often women felt guilt of going against the kalenjin traditions that leads them to stay in relationships because they are trying to please the traditions as well as please their husbands.

Surely, Kalenjin nation has an identity problem in its hands and our problem is in the midst of cultural practices made lawful during a time that did not have all its citizens at heart, namely women.

There are many reasons why Kalenjin practiced polygamy between 1924-1940. But here are the common reasons given:
– They erroneously believed that a man’s wealth is measured by the number of wives and children he has
– They erroneously believed that, the more wives a man has, the more political alliances he makes.
– They erroneously believed that, agriculturally is easier to have a big family to cultivate the land

– It gives men sexual gratification
– They erroneously believed that, it ensures most young girls are married off or assured of a husband if their husbands die (widow inheritance).

Although, since wealth is one of the decisive factors put into scale by a man before going

for multiple wives, few of them will have enough resources to gather for their women and children. This will make the husband spread or distribute the limited resources among the women. In this case, women in polygamous marriages experience limited resources and financial support as compared to women in monogamous marriages.

I have never seen a polygamous man who provides well for his family. It becomes the responsibility of the children of the first wife to bring up those of the second, those of the second take on those of the third.

When they can no longer satisfy, their wives end up having children with younger villagers, but the man will claim parentage and pass on the burden of bringing the children to his senior wives’ children. When he dies, his older children inherit nothing but poverty and half siblings to bring up. This is why people are massively poor.

In conclusion,

This marriage setup called polygamy not only affects the husband and wife, but also cascades problems down into the lives of children who are the products as a result of marriage. In other cases, the man has to divide his little resources further between all the families, and there is less money, less food and less everything for everyone." Children become the victims of circumstances which they have no control over. This problematic and conflicting family issue instills trauma in children which affects their studies and the social approach to life.