January 21, 2010
It true all is not well with the constitution process. Once again, the people of this country are being shortchanged by the political brokers. It would appear like this constitution review process has gone to the slaughter house called Naivasha Lodge where those with the sharpest knives will emerge with the biggest chunks of meat.
Personal and group interests are being played out rather openly. Political parties are bastardizing this document to suit their narrow parochial interests. If they succeed in coming out with what Kenyans did not ask for, then we the people of Kenya must reject this constitution. We cannot allow a document meant for 220 people to be the mother law that will govern 40 million Kenyans.
Kenyans have been candid in their contributions. They said clearly that they wanted power devolved to the grassroots. They wanted county, regional and a national government. Politicians must respect this or there will be no deal.
They asked for a two chamber parliament. Members of Parliament sitting in Naivasha had better not tamper with this clause or there will be no deal.
Wananchi asked for a recall class to deal with non performing MPs. If these same MPs remove it, there will be no deal. We will meet them at the debe.
Kenyans have demanded to elect their Chief Executive. They don’t care whether that CEO will be the President or the Prime Minister. All they are saying is that they want to elect him or her and give the winner executive powers to manage the country for five years. If the PSC members sitting in Naivasha come up with something that negates this, then we will meet them at the referendum.
Kenyans are sick are tired of a confused system where our elected leaders are everything to everybody. We want a genuine separation of powers between the Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary. Never again shall we have a situation where a serving MP is also a cabinet minister, a chairman of CDF, a party official and a parliamentary select committee member. Either you are an MP or you are a cabinet minister period.
What we are saying here is rather simple. If you want to be an MP, then sit in Parliament and make laws and be part of Parliament. If you think you would want to be a cabinet minister then wait to be nominated by the Chief Executive for vetting in Parliament. We are saying that the President or Prime Minister and his or her cabinet have no business having their village constituencies. They cannot represent narrow parochial interests while they are in the cabinet. They must project national and international interests of Kenya. It is time elected MPs decided whether to have their cake or eat it but not both.
In this country of 40+ million Kenyans, we know that the women folk account for more than 50% of our population. At one point President Kibaki issued an executive directive that all public institution appointments should ensure that 30% of slots are allocated to women. It was therefore strange and saddening to learn that whereas the PSC was considering increasing parliamentary seats to 300, the same committee was reluctant to give women just 40 seats!
My simple logic tells me that if Parliament cannot see the importance of affirmative action in this day and age then who will? How can an n institution that claims to be the public watchdog over Executive excesses be the first to deny women their rightful representation in the august house?
My primary school arithmetic tells me that if we plan to have 300 constituencies, then the most honorable thing is to allocate 100 seats to the women of Kenya and let them slot those seats either through nomination or through competitive politics amongst themselves. Let it be mandatory that if there are 30 constituencies in one province then 10 constituencies will be reserved for women.
Let us not dilly dally with this gender representation. We all know why women perform poorly in our electoral process. It is violence and verbal abuse against women that cow them from voting for their own. Let the law be passed that bars rogue husbands from confiscating their wives’ voting cards and lead them to the voting booths like goats to the marketplace to vote for their husbands’ preferred candidates.
This constitution must demystify the presidency, strip it of its imperial powers and empower the august house to impeach the head of state without fear of sending MPs home. It must make the head of state not only accountable to parliament but to be in the house from time to time to answer questions from MPs
Let Kenyan male MPs not fear the empowerment of women. Rwanda and Uganda have successfully done it without shedding any tears. In any case this gesture would be a good sign that member states of the EAC are moving in tandem with crucial political reforms.
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