Harambee is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events, e.g. fundraising or development activities. Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms. Harambee events may range from informal affairs lasting a few hours, in which invitations are spread by word of mouth, to formal, multi-day events advertised in newspapers. These events have long been important in parts of East Africa, as ways to build and maintain communities.
History
Following Kenya's independence in 1963, the first Prime Minister, and later first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta adopted "Harambee" as a concept of pulling the country together to build a new nation. He encouraged communities to work together to raise funds for all sorts of local projects, pledging that the government would provide their startup costs. Under this system, wealthy individuals wishing to get into politics could donate large amounts of money to local harambee drives, thereby gaining legitimacy; however, such practices were never institutionalised during Kenyatta's presidency.
Etymology
The etymology of the term is cited as genuinely Bantu, from the Miji Kenda term halumbe "to pull or push together".
Criticism
The word Harambee and the concept of harambee funds-drives have received criticism. The word was originally adopted by Jomo Kenyatta as the signature Kenyan national philosophy to mean pulling together or cooperating in community projects.
Historical abuse and poor performance
Due to repeated abuse, the wordHarambee is often perceived to refer to manipulative or deceptive collection of monetary funds from the public. Harambee funds drives have been repeatedly abused through:-
misappropriation of publicly collected harambee funds by individuals;
forced contributions through forced and unofficial deductions on the salaries of government employees;
corruption and use of harambee for personal gains;
many stalled harambee projects ;
poor coordination of harambee funded projects;
use of harambee funds drives as campaign platforms by political aspirants;
use of harambee funds drives to publicly attack and embarrass political rivals;
use of harambee funds drives to launder money stolen by officers who attempt to clean their public image by appearing to give generous donations for public projects;
use of harambee events to give bribes under the guise of issuing public donations;
poor performance of State controlled entities that have the word Harambee as part of their name e.g., the national football teamHarambee Stars;
perceived inferior status and poor management history of Harambee schools which were established through Harambee fund-raising projects; and
perceived legitimisation of dependency on donations or external assistance at the expense of promoting self-sufficiency, resourcefulness and innovation.
Religious criticism
Kenyan Christians have criticised the use of the word Harambee as an official term due to its apparent hindu origin. Harambee is neither a Hindu god nor a hindu word; it is a Swahili word and Kenyan. The objections have also been dismissed on the basis that even if the supposed derivation from Hare Ambeh were true, it has become irrelevant to the term's modern usage and meaning.
