Palaver - 19/11/09

Palaver

The Harmonised Draft Constitution should, hopefully, bring harmony. It is, after all, a distillation of drafts and ideas we have haggled over, disagreed on and discarded or shelved. Mr Nzamba Kitonga and Co should be proud. We must cede some ground and interests to accommodate each other. But given our peculiar politics, it may not be long before the draft gains another name — Demonised Draft Constitution!

Still on the draft, we like how
Kalonzo Musyoka, who ran for president then cut a power sharing deal to become Vice- President as Kenya burned, has welcomed one of its provisos. He is ecstatic at a proposal that scraps his office and introduces a Deputy President — who must have been the running mate of the winner of presidential election. His language betrays him; he seems to doubt he used a panya route to the office. Listen to him: "This will end what has been labelled by some as shortcuts to VP’s seat!" Is it that Stevo doesn’t want anyone after him to have it as easy as he did?

It was in order to show leaders present at the new draft’s launch gory footage of post-election violence. That should have served as a wake-up call to leaders who have the task of carrying out reforms that would make a return to 2007 impossible. But one key man was missing — President Kibaki. In 2007, he was safely in State House. I wonder if he was watching TV. (And we don’t mean cartoons.) Just imagine how it would have been if he were there yesterday, watching like the rest of us the shame power-games makes of us Kenyans!

And finally...

China’s Communist Party has decided the root of corruption is the chain of mistresses that
public officials keep. Its latest finding is that 95 per cent of the public servants caught in the graft web have mistresses, whom they lavish with gifts and cash. It also concluded it is not possible to keep mistresses on regular salaries. Now it is asking all leaders to shun mistresses and live within their means. Hopefully, women are also being asked to dump their boy toys. Give it a thought; this could be the link in the graft chain Kenya is yet to discover!

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