Referendum discourse is far from objective

President Uhuru Kenyatta chats with DP William Ruto during the burial service of National assembly Speaker Justin Muturi’s mother in Embu County. [Charles Kimani/DPPS]

In 2010, as Raila Odinga observes, Kenya had a unique opportunity to change its governance structures. We squandered that opportunity. Many change aficionados had, indeed, proposed, through the Constitutional Commission’s public hearings, that a presidential system would probably serve Kenya’s purposes better.

When a political stalemate emerged around the two governance systems, pitting the forces of change against the forces of impunity, politicians went to Naivasha ostensibly to broker a compromise.