Constitution: We made our bed, let us lie on it without too much protest

Calls for a yet to be defined referendum are snowballing. While some quarters demand a drastic reduction in a bloated political hierarchy that rewards political failures, cronies and sycophants, others target the political structure, but for a different reason; the creation of additional leadership slots, particularly that of the Prime Minister and an additional layer of Regional County leadership.

In seeking to alleviate the burden of taxation on the common man by cauterizing the leeches that suck the lifeline out of the national kitty, the motivation for the first group is altruistic. By reducing the number of MPs to less than 200; doing away with superfluous positions like Cabinet Administrative Secretaries, nominated MPs, MCAs and Woman Representatives among others, a sizeable chunk of the money that goes to pay wasted salaries and perks to these pseudo-workers can be put elsewhere.

As usual, the second pro-referendum group and those vehemently opposed to it are most likely goaded by selfish interests.

They seek to get, or retain specific individuals in powerful leadership positions while burdening the tax payer.

The tragedy is that the group pursuing altruistic interests has little, if any, power and will be overwhelmed by the mean schemers in the other competing groups. That is our story.

President’s proposal

Underlining the element of dishonesty are two things. First, those agitating for a referendum vigorously led the ‘Yes’ push for the adoption of the Constitution 2010, which they now want changed while those defending the Constitution 2010 thought it was a bad document during the last referendum.

Second, when James Orengo, one of the key players in formulating the 2010 Constitution and vouching for its efficacy suddenly gets nostalgic about a parliamentary system of leadership, you begin to understand how ordinary citizens are constantly manipulated to endorse the skewed designs of a selfish elite.

Ekuru Aukot, leader of the Third Way Alliance Party has been vocal on the reduction of the number of representation in both tiers of government. His arguments are well grounded, based on sound logic.

Recent political developments vindicate Aukot’s call for a lean, effectively functional representation.

When a vote on the president’s proposal for an 8 per cent increment in value added tax on fuel was due, Jubilee and ODM called parliamentary group meetings from which it emerged Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, united by the March 9 handshake, took a similar position and dictated to MPs to adapt their position.

This has led to disgruntlement, with opposition MPs calling for the impeachment of John Mbadi, Leader of Minority in Parliament for pushing the government’s agenda.

The decree in both Jubilee and ODM that MPs must toe the party line raises the question; where do we draw the line between Parliament’s independence as an institution charged with championing citizen rights and overbearing political parties, in reality, mere vehicles used to champion the interests of aspirants?

Punching bag

When Jubilee and ODM honchos seek to punish MPs who voted with their consciences in the  exercise of their democratic rights; choosing independent, informed thought process over herd mentality, they are actually declaring the redundancy of parliament, designating it as a useless appendage only useful for rubber-stamping decisions made by dominant party leaders.

Why then do we need a parliament if what Uhuru and Raila say today must carry the day without interrogation? How do we justify billions of shillings spent on people given to the mechanical loyalty of robots?

Kenya is in serious socio-political and economic messes because of the Jubilee party bumbling.

Look at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission that is Jubilees and the opposition’s punching bag.

Can it ever be trusted to deliver anything credible unless allowed to function independently? Can we expect the best from the police after Jubilees machinations to remove the security of tenure of the Inspector General who now serves at the pleasure of the Executive?

After Jubilee forced through sections of the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014, Kenyans no longer enjoy the array of freedoms enshrined the constitution 2010. Jubilees economic policies are a disaster for this country.

And given the impunity with which Jubilee routinely ignores Court orders, does it have any moral authority to demand citizens observe the rule of law?

The more our ideologically challenged leaders profess democracy and its principles, the more they take us down the path of autocracy. We have reached a point where subservience is taken to mean discipline, where diligence and dedication to duty mean disloyalty to political party apparatchiks.

That is dangerous and makes mockery of the requirement for an academic threshold in leadership.

What sense does it make to elect university graduates when they cannot deploy their intellect? Perhaps we should revert to the period when praise-singing sufficed.

 

Mr Chagema is a correspondent at The [email protected]