Read and vote beyond abortion, Kadhis

Hassan Omar Hassan

I trust that you are all aware that Ghana is through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup! My team England lost miserably to the Germans. Somehow the Germans hardly disappoint while the English are often overrated. It’s a lot of fun being an English supporter as almost everyone is against the English!

I am hopeful that the Ghanaians will overcome the Uruguayans to reach the semi-finals. But before this quarter-final clash takes place on Friday, Agenda 5 will be in Kakamega tomorrow as the World Cup takes a break.

During the next break after the quarter finals, Agenda 5 will be in the lakeside city of Kisumu on Sunday.

Western and Nyanza are unequivocal on their love for soccer. They undisputedly produce the bulk of the Harambee Stars players. Maybe while in Kakamega and Kisumu Agenda 5 can focus on the underlying causes as to why Harambee Stars has never made it to the World Cup. It’s definitely a governance issue!

Inspiration to many

Soccer management is wanting and Government commitment towards investing in soccer is lacking, though Kenyans still want results! They want Kenya to beat some of best teams in Africa who have some of football’s most talented, decorated and celebrated players and whose governments heavily invest in soccer development. Wishful! Countrymen, you can never reap where you do not sow.

MacDonald Mariga and Dennis Oliech are well-to-do and admirable youngsters who are an inspiration to many of us not because of Kazi Kwa Vijana. They are employed by football. They have not had to steal from the taxpayers to rise from youth unemployment to decent livelihoods. They have had to employ their footballing talent.

Yet there has been little the Government or the footballing management has done to make their rise to the top any easier. These young men have had to sweat it out literally on their own. Their rise is in some regards "accidental" or within the circumstances, destiny. At the bottom of all this lies Kenya’s governance challenges.

Both Western and Nyanza like the rest of Kenya have enormous talents in the youth in all spheres that is hardly nurtured. If there was deliberate investment in the young people and meaningful opportunities were created, Kenya would have been able to address the challenges of poverty and unemployment. Western and Nyanza are faced with abject poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment all as a consequence of poor governance.

The people of Kenya now have the opportunity through Agenda 5 to address these challenges of governance and by extension leadership. But Kenyans must realise that collectively, they are true leaders of their destiny. The challenges we face as a nation cannot find prescription through political actors. In fact they are the real cause as to why this nation faces the monumental challenges at hand.

These range from corruption to ethnicity, violation of human rights, inequalities and other forms of injustice. We believe through Agenda 5, Kenyans will find true expression and make informed choices that impact positively on future generations.

The constitutional struggle and the struggle for change is not new for the people of Western and Nyanza provinces. Some of Kenya’s greatest statesmen hail from these regions. The late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and the late Masinde Muliro continue to inspire the movement for genuine reforms from their graves.

Logical conclusion

These men made enormous sacrifices for you and I. Sacrifices that were to enable you and I live in a constitutional order that creates the foundation for a just and equitable society. Some of their dreams were not realised during their lifetime. But we bear that responsibility to fulfill these dreams, not necessarily for them, but for future generations.

While I was at Moi University about 10 years ago, a portrait of Jaramogi stood tall in my room. With it was his quote which read, "A people must believe in their mission and their future... for true political leadership does not come with the urge to achieve quick results, it comes with the commitment to pursue an ideal to its logical conclusion."

The people of Kenya now have the opportunity to bring the process of constitution making to its logical conclusion through discussion of the Proposed Constitution and the August 4 referendum. We have over the years generated and sustained the demand for change through a new constitutional dispensation.

It is now for Kenyans to discuss and comprehend the various provisions of the Proposed Constitution and make informed choices.

Agenda 5 seeks to create the platform for discussion for all of the provisions of the proposed constitution. These are the 18 chapters including the Preamble and all of the 264 sections therein. As a people, we must resist the temptation to reduce or limit the discussion on the constitution to one chapter and two sections characteristic of the debate on land, abortion and the Kadhis court respectively.

While discussion on these issues is healthy for our democratic growth, our referendum vote rests on the entirety of the proposed constitution. A new constitution might just provide the basis for Kenya to qualify for the next World Cup!

Now, I Am ‘Ghanaian’

A new constitution will provide the framework for Kenya to address the numerous governance issues that afflict our public institutions.

With governance issues resolved and Government under obligation to "take measures, including affirmative action programmes" to empower the youth, Lionel Messi and MacDonald Mariga will face off soon on national duty. My guess is Kenya will qualify for the 2014 World Cup and reach the knock-out phase! For now though, I’m ‘Ghanaian’.

With Kenyans at the centre of governance, government and decision-making, everything is possible. That is the power of inclusion and participation as desired through Agenda 5.

The writer is a commissioner with the KNCHR.