Politics and Tribal Alliances
In the past the Meru were in a coalition with the Embu and Kikuyu which yielded some political power. The coalition, called G.e.m.a. (Gikuyu-Embu-Meru Association), is not as strong as it once was, but the Meru typically voted with the opposition after the advent of multipartism. This has since changed with the defeat of KANU in the 2002 general elections that saw a number of Meru leaders in the government of NARC. This does vary from location to location, but would generally hold true. Developments under the multi-party experiment since 1992 have renewed an informal political alliance between GEMA peoples and much of the Kikuyu community.
Read more about this topic: Meru People
Famous quotes containing the words politics and, politics, tribal and/or alliances:
“Man made one grave mistake: in answer to vaguely reformist and humanitarian agitation he admitted women to politics and the professions. The conservatives who saw this as the undermining of our civilization and the end of the state and marriage were right after all; it is time for the demolition to begin.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)