From: Theus Owicho
Has anyone had a look at the very simple, very clear Bill of Rights in the draft constitution that marks a certain departure from the current constitution in which each fundamental right given is instantly taken away?
Has anyone noticed how new and interesting provisions have been made in the draft constitution to increase representation of women, youth, marginalized communities- how all these groups have clear representation in Parliament?
Has anyone seen that in the draft constitution future presidents can be impeached if they breach the constitution? That presidential appointments will more often than not be vetted by Parliament? That there will be devolution of resources?
Has anyone noticed that in the draft constitution there are provisions for independent candidates to help us out of the current problem of political patronage? Has anyone noticed the Supreme Court, the permanent constitutional court?
Has anyone noticed the provisions for enforcement of rights in the draft constitution?
More importantly, has anyone noticed how all those Yes people who keep the focus on the Kadhi’s courts and the other side issues by constantly harping on how wrong the ruling was, or how irresponsible the church is, or how unpatriotic the No side is…. has anyone else noticed how the opportunity to speak about the positive things in the draft constitution is being lost?
It is said that if your opponent is too strong to beat, then the best strategy is to make him BEAT HIMSELF?!! That the more the YES side argues about the ruling, the less focus there is on the gains?
Has anyone noticed that branding different interests as anti-reform when they express disagreement instead of initiating discussion only serves to consolidate opposition?
Has anyone noticed that the church has changed strategy? It is no longer the clergy at the forefront of the Kadhi court debate, it is lawyers. And the message they ave is quite simple- even the judges of the constitution court agree with them… and that the message is not being diluted by constantly saying that the church is against progress?
Has anyone noticed that if there was no agreement in Bomas, no agreement during Wako, no agreement during the CoE tour of duty, no agreement in Parliament… that on this one we may not have 100% agreement (not that it is necessary to have it)
But, dear fellow Kenyans, has anyone noticed just how much time we have lost that we could be taking to mention all the things we like in the draft, and to discuss all those that are not perfect in a way that assures those concerned them that it would be possible to ‘fix’ them after we pass the draft?
Has anyone noticed that the issue at hand is really about trust or lack thereof and that hardline positions are not helping us move forward together, united as we should?
Has anyone noticed??!!!!
GEMA STAND IS INCONSISTENT
Throughout our Independence history the GEMA community has consistently taken a stand against the rest of Kenyan communities. They have opposed everything the majority of Kenyans want. At the Bomas of Kenya Deliberations they pitted themselves against the rest of Kenya, thus effectively divided our country into GEMA and the rest. In the Kenyatta succession GEMA led by Dr Njoroge Mungai effectively divided Kenya into Mt Kenya and the rest.
Wako Report, Kilifi Report and thereafter Parliament it was GEMA and the rest contesting against each other. In Parliament the Mt Kenya community derailed the establishment of a new constitution.
Right now the GEMA Cardinal Njue and GEMA cannon Karanja are leading the NO CAMPAIGN and they re doing everything to block the new constitution just because it is offering the majority of Kenya a chance to partake in their justice, economy and governance system. They take the stand to protect the land they have grabbed or plan to grab from other Kenyan communities.
The GEMA interest is in the land they are grabbing and that which they ave grabbed from the Great Rift Valley and Coast Provinces in the last 46 years. and not the Kadhi Courts or abortion.
Kadhi Courts and Abortion have been there before. Abortion has been there because of the the moral decay against which the church has never led an enthusiastic crusade aganst. Why now?
Right now the GEMA group is campaigning to trim the power of Luis Moreno Ocampo at the ICC Review in Kampala. It wants the investigations on the perpetrators of the 2008 post elections violence to be postponed by one year which of course will give them time not only to kill evidence but also the remaining witnesses. The world would act naively to grant them that repose.
I see Koigi wa Wamwere not getting tired of his pet subject, ”Negative Ethnicity in Kenya”. The solution that he is offering take serious advantage of the infamous ‘Willing-buyer willing-seller’ and the ‘Any Kenyan citizen can buy property, work and live in any part of the country’ laws that specifically favour only the GEMA community in their active infiltration of land of all other Kenyan communities while they do not allow the rest to infiltrate Central Province land. They have cleverly kept Central Province as an effective majimbo Province since Independence, 12.12.1963.
In the Daily Nation of yesterday Koigi wa Wamwere warns that the new Constitution is a majmbo one that will balkanise tribes into their respective regions, yet he is studiously silent of the fact that Central Province is effectively majimbo Province. Besides, if GEMA elites have pushed out their own from Central land for which Mau Mau fought and died as he has said how much more are they going to push the rest of us from our land, us being of no GEMA extraction?
To solve the Kenyan ethnic problems we must be sober minded, honest and tolerant with other communities and deliberately work for justice notwithstanding our personal feelings. It is wrong for Koigi wa Wamwere to allege that elites from all communities caused the 2008 post elections ethnic violence when he knows quite well the fact that the Kenyan communities were all to one man united as a country leading to the colonial government Britain releasing Jomo Kenyatta and granting Independence.
Koigi wa Wamwere is silent of the most important fact that Jomo Kenyatta effectively caused negative ethnicity and balkanisation of the country into GEMA and the REST that immediately accompanied it, with his hate NYAMU campaigns in which only Kikuyus were human beings while the rest of Kenyans were NYAMU, wild animals. The genesis of the 2008 post elections violence are therefore firmly rooted in the Jomo Kenyatta hare campaigns that effectively divided Kenya into GEMA and the REST.
DR ODIDA OKUTHE