Explain the causes of conflicts in Africa

Ethnicity - The main cited cause is ethnic cleavage. The county is ethnically diverse with more than 42 ethnic groups. The tribe and kin groups are the most powerful levels of social identity. The conflict is due to ethnic hatred, linked to electoral politics and competition among, new arrivals in a region some groups have large land ownership while the locals feel threatened.
Murungi (1995) argues that there has been a reservoir of resentment and mistrust of the Kikuyu arising from their expansionism. The Kikuyu were forced to migrate out of their traditional houses as a result of displacement by the white settlers and settled in the Rift Valley, they were the first to accept capitalism and were able to first accept capitalism and were able to exploit the opportunities created by the independent government benefiting from small holder credit service jobs due to their education. Tribal animosity was created by the policy of returning land to Africans after independence where Kikuyu benefited disproportionately.
Land - Is at the centre of ethnic conflicts in Kenya. Violence is directed to a minority who own land in specific regions of the country to expel them from those areas. Kenya’s “land question” remains unresolved. Violence came when elites in the tribe used land issue to fight those opposed to them by putting those opposed to them by putting claims to territorial land rights in the Rift Valley and the Coast. Colonial settlers took all the fertile land and as a result, the Luo, Kisii, Luyia and Kikuyu migrated of Rift Valley as squatters to provide labour on settler farms.
After independence, the highlands became contested areas, the contest was ethnicised. The KAMATUSA - Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu - of the Rift Valley regarded the settler farms as them ancestral land and favoured majimbo system that would provide guarantees against land hungry squatters and migrants. Political independence was negotiated in London without resolving the land issue. All Kenyan tribes wanted their land back but Kenyatta regime resorted to willing seller-willing buyer policy. Many migrants thus bought land from the white settlers and settled in areas outside the ancestral homes in Rift Valley Province. In 1941 the colonial government recognized Kikuyu demands for land and purchased 34,700 acres in Olenguruone in Nakuru for Kikuyu settlement, creating animosity. The place witnessed worst incidents in 1991 ethnic violence and those displaced have been unable to return. In Tana River District, fight for land and pasture pitted the Pokomo against and Wardei (for pasture rights). They accused Pokomo farmers of restricting their access to water points and grazing fields.
The districts with the highest percentage of alienated land are Kajiado, Laikipia, Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu and Nakuru, all in the Rift Valley, which has 40% of Kenya’s land mass, centre of conflict.
Politics (control of the state)
The ethnic violence in 1991-2007 were caused by the need to maintained the political and economic status quo in the Rift Valley hence the aim was to influence voting to favour the incumbent. Political institutions e.g. political parties have failed to accommodate diverse interests motivated by competition for resources and power. In Moi’s Kenya (1978-2001) there was centralization of power, the leader who captured the state that control over huge economic resources and could reward supporters and create barriers to entry into political and economic markets. In poor countries like Kenya, the state control over the economy is so entrenched and the premium for controlling political power is so high that political parties and ethnic groups can do anything to have access to State House including use of ethnic violence. People became displaced in Rift Valley and Coast to reduce their political influence through voting power.

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jerop5614 answered the question on January 2, 2019 at 17:42