An Amendment Now will Adulterate the Constitution

The article below was carried as an opinion in the DN 21st Sept 2011... but here is the unedited text

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I have a lot of respect for honourable members, and much more if they hold cabinet positions. But i have absolutely no respect for anyone who wants to do themselves a favour by subverting the collective will of all Kenyans. Indeed, this is the reason why we negotiated this constitution. We did not want a few people (or one person if you remember Presidents Kenyatta and Moi), to make decisions for us, decide what is good for Kenya, and go ahead to do it because they have the power and instruments of government.

Let all Kenyans know that the proposed change of date is symbolic, it is indeed the first adulteration of the constitution. If it works, then it will be possible to adulterate everything in the constitution. And the cabinet is very clever, they are just testing the waters. If they and parliament win, wait for a flood of demagoguery. The next thing you will hear is that the threshold for a presidential candidate s too high and what we need is a simple majority vote. We must fight it by all means.

The change of date is being tied to the resolution of the crisis that is wont to happen is article 81 b is not realised. The women sector has been hoodwinked to support this amendment. Please be warned my sisters, do not take a bite at the carrot. It is laced with a poison so lethal it can dismember this society. Remember the story of the ogre that transformed itself to a handsome graceful dancer and won the confidence of the beautiful girl and even offered to marry her? He and his friends were going to feast on her flesh that night. Were it not for the deux ex machina, the small bird that told he to run for the hills and the frog that swallowed her as the ogres came carrying wood, she was on her way to the roast. I am that bird, and i am speaking to you.

If you listen to Hon Mutula, you will still be wondering what the difference is between implementation and amendment, and which of the two is the mandate of the CIC. A friend of mine said in a meeting that Mutula is treating the CIC as if it were a small department he established by gazette notice. Bw Waziri, kindly be advised that the CIC is a constitutional body, and anything that happens to the constitution is their business. In the event that they are not consulted or informed of the actions of any institution (as long as that action relates to the constitution), and then they develop a consultation mechanism for citizen’s participation, such actions are part of the impunity we are so keen to abandon.

The spirit of the constitution is one of national dialogue and we do not ever again want to go back to the times when our leaders are talking down on us. It is because of the arrogance of leaders that we have fought, that people have dedicated themselves to the liberation of this country. We are not there yet, and even some ideologues and architects of repression are posing as reformers, but we have started the journey.

That having been said, let us turn to the issue of the election date. It is not ambiguous. It is now becoming important because the two principals are using cabinet to legitimise their continued stay in the arbitrary marriage called a coalition government. It is very convenient for them. And therefore the delay in establishing the IEBC. They know, as we do, that no Kenyan wants to go to elections without a well functioning body because of our experience in 2007. And they are exploiting our fears by delaying its establishment. That it will not be ready to carry out elections on 14th of august 2012 is utter nonsense. We know that if a government wants something to work, they will put everything in it, and we have the capacity to make IEBC work very well. The problem is the two principals do not want an election that early, period.

And so our focus should go to Dr A Ekuru and his team. When they are doing the interviews, the key question they need to ask is: how will you ensure that the elections in August 2012 are properly done? A candidate who mentions the “cabinet proposal on election date” should automatically be disqualified. He or she belongs to the impunious system and is an hindrance to reforms.