The paper traces the political problems that Kenyacurrently faces particularly the country’s inability to construct aunited national consciousness, historical relationships thatunfolded between the country’s foremost founders, JomoKenyatta and Oginga Odinga and the consequences of theirpolitical differences and subsequent-fallout in the 1960s. Thefall-out saw Kenyatta increasingly consolidating power aroundhimself and a group of loyalists from the Kikuyu communitywhile Odinga who was conceptualized as the symbolicrepresentative of the Luo community was confined to thewilderness of politics. This paper while applying the primordialand essentialist conceptual framework recognizes thedeterminant role that the two leaders played in establishing thefoundations for post-independent Kenya. This is especiallytrue with respect to the negative consequences that theirdiffering perspectives on Kenyan politics bequeathed thecountry, especially where the evolution of negative ethnicity isconcerned. As a result of their discordant political voices in thepolitical arena, there were cases of corruption, the killing ofinnocent Kenyans in Kisumu in 1969, political assassinationsof T J Mboya, Pio Gama Pinto and J M Kariuki among othersas this paper argues.