New constitution holds promise for rule of law

By Musalia Mudavadi

The need to restructure Kenya has all along been necessitated by lack of the rule of law and respect for human rights.

Many people have experienced the massive violation of the rights for which there was inadequate redress judicially or administratively.

We, therefore, are faced with a fundamental dilemma: Do we want to replicate the eras of atrocities, the dark days under a constitution that does not recognise Kenyans? Are we ready to prolong the agony of the centralisation of power in the hands of one person, the President? Are we suggesting we can delay democratisation, transparency and accountability, and continue with patronage and ethnicised politics?

Are we going to hold the potential growth of the economy through equitable resource allocation to ransom? Are we convinced we can suspend the gains of women, youth, people with disabilities and marginalised communities for a while longer?

I am aware the kind of seething anger that is evoked in many Kenyans desiring change who correctly perceive procrastination over the new constitution as the height of unbridled impunity. The attempt to stall the people’s choice shows that some people in leadership are averse to having a mechanism for a systematic management of the country where accountability will be the watchword.

A constitution is the fabric that holds a nation together without any form of segregation – it is what ensures that a nation prospers economically, socially and culturally. For any country to grow wealth, it needs a good constitution that safeguards the rule of law and on which to bench mark human rights. What I hear from the ‘No’ side is that we wait for a thoroughbred constitution. But if for some reason the Proposed Constitution fails to achieve this intention at implementation, it would have at the very least brought us closer to achieving the intention of change that Kenyans demand. Many are aware and support the provisions on devolved system and the guarantees in the Proposed Constitution.

The guiding spirit in the provisions is reinstatement of people’s participation in their development that was taken away by the repeal of the Lancaster constitution provisions on regional governments and the gradual removal of the administrative and financial powers of local government.

Dr Benjamin Kipkorir tells the whole story of weakened democracy and participation at regional and local authority levels in his recent book: Descent from Cherang’any Hills: Memoirs of a Reluctant Academic. He gives us a glimpse of how the President, operating through the Provincial Administration, took control of land from county councils, and how the president’s power to grant land led to massive abuse, illegal transfers of land, and dispossession of many of their land. We hence had sown the seeds of distrust of Government, conflict among ethnic communities, and politicians play upon ethnic fears that promoted ethnic animosities thus weakening our national solidarity and unity.

Public loss of confidence in the impartiality and competence of a centralised governance system paved the way for loss of lives in the long struggle for a new constitution. This journey has been long enough and it is prudent for us to successfully end it by voting for the Proposed Constitution for our generation and the future. The proposed law vests a lot of powers in the Kenyans. And it is not surprising that some are scared of this prospect of releasing the people’s free will and energy to require accountable leaders.

As we campaign on the proposed constitution, let us do it with dignity. Let us maintain peace. And since there is the promise for broadened participation, merit, competence, accountability, efficiency, discipline and independence of the Judiciary, under a new constitution, I will vote ‘Yes’.

—The writer is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government