A Slap in The Face?

When did our much-maligned current constitution receive a makeover? During the Moi era, Kibaki and his cohorts were at the forefront of agitation for a new constitutional dispensation. Remember the arguments over the "constitutive power" of Kenyans and Kivutha Kibwana's contention that we were not necessarily bound by the dictates of a patently unfair constitution? Remember Kibaki's own push for the IPPG agreement that had no basis in our constitution?

Now we are told that there is nothing really wrong with the document (the constitution) and that we should faithfully abide by it. I remember that prior to the election, I stated on this blog that Kibaki did not give us democratic space but rather was a beneficiary of it. I further argued that he was actually in the process of rolling it back. That much was obvious way before the stolen election and continues to be affirmed by the statements attributed to him and his mandarins in PNU.

The President's flirtation with (some might say marriage to) constitutional reform is most definitely over.

On the Road to Peace

Tribal Gerrymandering

Once again our MPs have outdone themselves in their disregard for the issues affecting their constituents (a good number of whom are IDPs) while at the same time bemoaning the plight of their kinsmen in far away constituencies. They are going out of their way to prove just what a sorry bunch of tribalists they are. And in advocating the return of IDPs, not to the homes they have owned and lived in for decades, but to their "ancestral homes " (whatever that means) , the Dishonourable Members of the Disgust House reveal their intention of creating ethnically pure and homogeneous constituencies where they can be undisputed tribal chieftains. Shame on them. And shame on all of us who voted for them!

Forward to the Past?

If media reports (or speculation) on the supposed "deal" reached between Kibaki and Raila is true, then it would be an indictment of Kibaki's decision in 2003 to toss out the MoU which had given him the Presidency. I mean, talk of 50-50 sharing of Cabinet posts, constitution review and even a premiership is reminiscent of the document signed between NAK and LDP in 2002, prior to the elections. Just that now instead of a Rainbow Coalition, we are looking at a Government of National Unity and instead of a Memorandum of Understanding, we have a Power-Sharing Agreement.

This is symptomatic of the peculiarly Kenyan tendency to chase our tails when confronted with serious issues. What guarantees do we have that this latest MoU won't go the way of the previous one? Has Kibaki really learnt his lesson?

Shame on Kenya

I am shocked and appalled by the apparent complicity of the government, civil society and media in the ethnic cleansing that is happening in our country. Not even during Moi's brutal regime did we see people not only evicted from their homes (of which there were undoubtedly very many), but ferried back to their "ancestral" regions. Though they remained in refugee camps, there was no doubt that they retained the right to return to their burnt out homes. The existence of these camps served as a constant reminder of the determination of the displaced to regain what was (and still is) rightfully theirs.

The Kenyan society stands indicted for the failure to secure the right of any Kenyan to live and own property in any part of the country. Worse still, we are balkanizing the nation into exclusively tribal regions in the name of peace. Historical grievances and a stolen election are being used as an excuse to commit the most heinous crimes with impunity.

Where is the government? Where are the voices of our famously eloquent civil society? Where is the media? Why are we all silent in the face of this most extreme danger to the fabric of our society? Shame on Kenya!