You are more likely to marry a relative than it was 100 years ago.

God (or the sea) formed man and woman. The first generation married each other. The second generation did cousins. The third generation had clans. And the clans discouraged inbreeding, highly because there were a variety to chose from. Not ethics, not values, not hardening of species. As if the world moves in backs and forths, we are moving back to how it was in the second generation since creation - not the first - despite the world increasingly population rising.

Then, a hundred years ago, one knew a little few people outside one's clan or one's location. Movements were limited, migrations hardly and relocations pushed by unavoidable circumstances. Presently all these are done for pleasure. So it is more likely to meet your relative in the remotest part of the world you least expected.

As to how many people relate to a person so would a number of people avoid marriages to such blood. For instance, my mother's clan is out of bounds to me, my brothers and in extension my paternal cousins in matters marriage. We are 68 cousins from paternal side and 22 from maternal side. That goes that 90 people are not allowed to see each other in lust light. Somebody would say that considering Kenya's population of 40Million+ it is a small probability hence negligible. But see, to have 68 cousins means you got at least 12-15 uncles (aunts maybe included). You do not marry where your uncle has married from for you consider his wife your mother. But this observation was a little lessened for one could marry in the clan an aunt is married to. Of course not in the very 'house'. With that, we expect a similar response from the other families increasing our probabilities by almost a square - 68 x 68 = 4624. One is therefore prevented from marrying to 4623 people (next posts will have illustrations, forgive my toddler steps in writing).

With such a grown and reduced probability in marrying the right person, of no recent blood ties, there are other social stories that make it further a complicated idea. As it stands now small communities get squeezed and more likely to take in cousins. For 4.6k is not a small number.

With limited inter racial and intertribal marriages (people are more likely to marry from their ethnicity - the greatest reason behind is that man is territorial)  there is less we can do but to break past taboos of whom was termed as your relative.

It was not good to marry from grandmother's clan, four generations at least. And forever no one would marry from one's paternal clan. So if a clan grows to a million people, all are to be one's family ( I will explain the tragedy here). So it would mean that with such population increase, two generations are able to prevent one from marring many people. For 68 people, there will be 68 grandparents of 3 children each (assuming we may do family planning) who will have 2 kids each. You know the maths? 68+(68x68x68) to represent people in the first generation. And 314, 500+(68x68) which would bring us to 319,124! May we breath in and out to relax for most of us have married relatives already!

You would not marry two sons from the same house. And your cousin was equal to your brother, your uncle to your father, your mother was to have her people respected the way one's grandmother's people should be handled and also down to the people whom your son would get a wife from. The circle would not allow polygamy in present day. If by luck you are not hooked to a relative the second relationship will get you 'messing'.

Let me point out how crazier things would get. Assume your father is of clan A, marries and divorces from clan B and marries in clan C as third relationship. Tradition would regard children born by the father not to marry in any of the clans. It is because they consider all as ' mother clans'. And the families to which the mothers came from would not have their daughters or sons take anyone from the 'house' of the father. That therefore puts off a great number of people unsuitable for you.

To cut a long story short, not even increased intertribal or racial marriages would help to avoid marrying 'relatives' for it is population that makes it hard. And with a quickly growing homogeneous community it is time that inbreeding would hit high to bring about undesirable species detrimental to human species and its survival - therefore retardedness and extinction!

Thank you for listening to my poor story. Lung'afa is my name.