Kenya: Give all citizens a say in changes to Constitution
The dominant debate at yesterday’s Mashujaa Day celebrations was constitutional reforms. President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition Leader Raila Odinga made the boldest push yet for constitutional changes to remedy weaknesses that have become manifest in the past 10 years of implementing the current Constitution.
When it was ratified in 2010, the country made history to have enacted a Constitution during peacetime. Even so, it was a ceasefire document, coming in the wake of a series of misadventures and socio-political excesses that had afflicted the nation for decades, since Independence in 1963.
Yesterday, President Kenyatta declared that the country had reached a constitutional moment, where changes have to be made to address contentious issues, among them inclusivity, equity and endemic violence after every election.
“Constitutional change” has since become a buzzword due to loopholes in governance. To be fair, some of the perceived weaknesses are not constitutional but poor execution of the law and inability to live its spirit.
While acknowledging the gains from the 2010 Constitution, the country has not realised its full potential. It has continued to suffer from exclusionary politics, a zero-sum game where the winner takes everything and leaves the losers to lick their wounds.
Politics has been made a high-stakes game in which losing is perilous, condemning a section of society to the periphery. The losing camp is excluded from government and even business. Losing is not easily accepted; hence, violence naturally follows every election as the losers bitterly contest the results since they cannot countenance years in oblivion.
Since the first multiparty election in 1992, the country has recorded violence prior or after the polls just because of that. The only exception was in 2002, when President Daniel arap Moi was exiting the stage after 24 years in power.
Statistics show that the country loses two out of every five years — one before and another after an election. Campaigns begin a year before an election, which slows economic growth, and, thereafter, violence breaks after the polls, creating an Armageddon.
The worst case was after the bungled 2007 election that precipitated violence never witnessed before. And in 2013 and 2017, the results were bitterly contested.
It is the latest acrimony that gave birth to the ‘Handshake’ between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga. That gave rise to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which has become the catalyst for constitutional change.
Must be people-driven
Clearly, there is every reason to revisit the Constitution and find remedies. However, it is critical that the process be participatory. The challenge with constitutional reform processes is that they are driven by the political elite and largely motivated by personal interest, self-preservation and resource- and power-sharing deals.
If the Constitution has to be reconfigured, it must be people-driven. Citizens must play a pivotal role in the changes; they have to make a determination of what they want for themselves, their children and posterity.
Never again should it be about power sharing or power play.
Importantly, a constitutional moment should not be an instance for flexing muscles, ethnic mobilisation and political posturing.
The President aptly suggested that the debate strive to achieve consensus. But this presupposes that the citizens are fully engaged and informed about the issues and process and their role. They needs to identify the critical issues, debate them openly and agree on what should be done.
Simply put, we need sober engagement on the Constitution reforms. And the reason we raise this is because we have already seen danger signs ahead.
The BBI debate has triggered sharp divisions even before its contents are made public. The proponents are pushing for its acceptance without question while opponents have virulently expressed their objection to it.
That does not bode well for consensus. In fact, the report seems to prepare the ground for explosive political contestation, which, paradoxically, is what it is meant to cure.
As robustly expressed by President Kenyatta, we cannot be slaves to constitutional rigidity. But the constitutional moment should be Kenyans’ moment.
Indeed, as Deputy President William Ruto, who has been an ardent opponent of constitutional reforms, pointed out yesterday, the process must be inclusive. Let Kenyans decide what is good for them.
