Separate and Suspicious: Local Social and Political Context and Ethnic Tolerance in Kenya

Abstract

Does living in close proximity to members of other ethnic groups make people more or less tolerant of ethnic differences? How does the interaction between local electoral competition and ethnic demography affect tolerance? This article examines these questions by combining survey data with new measures of local ethnic composition and political competition in Kenya. People living in ethnically diverse areas report higher levels of interethnic trust, while residentially segregated people are less trusting of members of other ethnic groups. There is little evidence that local electoral competition decreases tolerance even in ethnically diverse areas. This article has important implications for the study of the political and economic consequences of ethnic diversity and suggests that even in developing countries, where resource conflict, along ethnic lines, is acute and sometimes violent, sharing neighborhoods with members of different ethnic groups may lead to tolerance.