Allan Bukusi

My ten-year-old daughter asked me about the referendum. I told her that she should not worry, because it was just a paper that talked about how Kenya will be ruled in future. I should not have said that. She told me clearly that since she was a Kenyan she should be able to understand it.

I could not argue with that. But you can imagine the agony I went through as I tried to explain in simple terms what the Constitution was all about.

I began this adult-child discussion by trying to explain how Kenya was a cake with one President. The draft would cut the cake into 47 pieces, but that there would still be one President with 47 mini-governments. The President would not be able to tell each Government what to do, and that it would be the same as we have now, only that each piece of cake would have its own Parliament like they had studied in GHC.

Finally, I explained that the referendum was important because all the adults were going to decide the future of the children. That is why all the TVs, newspapers, political and religious leaders were talking about it.

High demand

She listened quietly as I laboured through this exercise. I felt proud that I had explained the question of the day so clearly, even though I had worked up a mild sweat in the process. Then she responded, as children do, with some wisdom of her own.

"What you are saying reminds me of the story of the woodcutter. The woodcutter made beautiful furniture, but his supply of wood ran out. He decided to go and cut some wood in the forest. But he did not even have enough wood to make a handle for his axe. So he took his old axe and went to the forest. When he reached the forest he asked the trees to give him some wood for his axe.

The tall trees consulted with one another and decided that they were too big and beautiful to deal with a woodcutter or give him any of their branches. However, since the woodcutter was in such misery, they gave him a shrub that was just enough to make a handle. He thanked the trees profusely and left. The next day he came back and cut down all the trees in the forest."

The story does not end there. The woodcutter was able to make 47 pieces of furniture with wood from the forest. The furniture was in such high demand that he sold them at an auction to the highest bidder and never made furniture ever again.

The axe is the Constitution. People are the forest. The rest I leave to your imagination. An axe can be used for good or evil. We must determine what the axe will be used for before we provide wood for the handle. Many times we pray for the Wisdom of Solomon yet God has given children enough wisdom to save a nation. I thank God for my daughter. I want to leave her with a united nation. Something she or I will never need to be ashamed of.

The writer is chairman, The Salt Association, Kenya.

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