Let us make our Supreme Law deliver on its promise

This week I was privileged to attend a high level conference on the implementation of Africa’s constitutions. Attended by African academicians, bureaucrats and civil society actors, the conference was both sobering and uplifting. Listening to experiences shared by the participants, it was sobering to recognise that the similarity of the African experience. We all know that we have a shared colonial past and liberation history. One would expect the trajectory post liberation to go different ways. In reality, the postcolonial experience in Africa has largely been the same. It is a story of big man politics, the plunder of African resources for the benefit of a few and the use of tribalism as an avenue to seek and maintain power. That is the story from Cape to Cairo. What was sobering was just how, like one meek family, the African citizen has accepted subjugation and how the African leader has failed to seek the national good. Cry the beloved continent.

I was, however, uplifted when I realised that while the past may be depressing; there are a few lights that point to a better future. Even more inspiring was the realisation that Kenya is perceived by others as one of those lights that the continent is looking to for leadership. While we in Kenya may not realise it, we have made great strides in nation building in the last five years. Our Constitution, with all its deficiencies, is one of the most pro-people in the continent. Because it was produced over such a long while, it genuinely seeks to respond to our realities and to cure for many of the ills that defined our difficult past. It seeks to create institutions that can take Kenya to the next level. We may not see that but others do.