Post by adongo12345 on Nov 16, 2006 2:14:18 GMT 3
By Adongo Ogony
The Multi-Sectoral Forum (MSF) has released its report on the roadmap to constitutional reforms. As I observed before their road map is full of landmines, road side bombs and huge potholes. All these could make the journey through it pretty dangerous for the nation. But with a little help and a landmine clearing team as well as road side bomb detectors we might be able to make the road usable and who knows, it might just finally take us to the Promised Land, a new Katiba.
www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143961124&date=15/11/2006
Which reminds me; Kiraitu Murungi is back in the cabinet. He of the failed Katiba fame and the Anglo Fleecing quagmire, complete with alleged (and fully broadcasted) mafia type shake up of one, John Githongo. But I will spare him some lashing today. I am glad he is back, because he is to political commentators and satirists what someone like George Bush is to cartoonists. Good material and a solid punching bag. We are much obliged and our thanks to the president. I am serious. Ask Bush and Rumsfeld. They hanged together for too long and were hanged together by the voters.
But surely, is the president this desperate? What happened to the attempt to woo new people to the GNU to build for 2007? Is everybody else refusing to join the party with Mzee? This is sad.
It reminds me of something that happened in the mid 1980’s when Jaramogi Oginga Odinga unleashed one those classic scathing attacks he used to pound Moi’s government with. Moi was stunned when Jaramogi’s open letter to the president, was published, I believe by the Weekly Review. The nation waited in baited breath to see what Mtukufu Rais would do.
In those days even a single statement against the president was considered as treason, not to mention a whole open letter like Jaramogi did. That evening to remind the nation he was still alive and kicking Moi announced the transfer of Stanley Oloitiptip, that giant of a man, from one ministry to the other. We laughed and cheered at the campus. To us it was proof positive that the big gun at State House was running on an empty tank. The fellas just didn’t know what to do next. That is the same way I see Kibaki’s rather bizarre move of bringing one of his most despised allies back to the cabinet and roping Saitoti back even though there is an outstanding appeal in the courts by the Attorney General against him.
The ODM must be dancing with relief and excitement. The attempts by the Kibaki folks to lure some of their big guns with cabinet appointments must have collapsed completely. Secondly Kibaki has brought in people who add zero political capital to his team unless of course one considers the Meru elders as a big political capital for Kibaki. But that is Kibaki’s headache. Let him deal with it. If Mzee wants to swing us Saitoti as his successor, we will meet him in the battlefield. I hear he (Saitoti) is loaded with cash. Bring it on.
For me the issue today is what can be done to save the MSF roadmap before it joins other initiatives in the constitutional graveyard that eagerly awaits it.
The reason I am saying we need to save the roadmap is that there are some good things in it covered in a lot of misplaced and misguided priorities. What are the good things?
One is the proposal for a review act. The country has waited for a year for that and we need it. The content of the review act is another story altogether and my take is that some of the proposals from the MSF team may go through but a lot more need to be debated and worked out.
For example the idea of a Constituent Assembly (whatever name we want to call it) is good. How we elect it has to be the subject of discussions and negotiations. Whatever we do, we need free, fair and democratic secret ballot elections for the delegates. We also need to deal with issues of proportionate representation. It is not fair that Nairobi classified as a district with a population of 3 million gets the same representation with another district with one tenth of its population.
The other good thing from the report is the affirmative action proposals to be included in the minimum reform package under what the MSF has called "righting historical wrongs". The media sensation of looking at the issue in terms of how much it will cost clouds the issue and the reality that our National Assembly is male dominated and are lagging behind in the whole region. The proposed method of “electing” these representatives is problematic.
The proposal is for 74 women district representatives and others to be picked through an Electoral College through district party lists. The idea of Electoral College should be scrapped. If people want to be representatives they need to be elected and accountable to the electorate not to some party big wigs. Look at the EALA so called “elections”. It is a scandal. Party leaders choose their cronies and relatives or party hawks being rewarded for stepping down for so and so. Even the present nomination of MP’s by political parties as negotiated in IPPG deal of 1997 where parties were encouraged to nominate women is a disaster for Kenyan women. History has proved to us that those nominated have one and only one criteria, loyalty to the leadership of their parties. They have nothing to do with women. Women district representatives should be elected by and accountable to women in their districts. Parties should be free to nominate candidates, but let the women elect their reps so they can hold them accountable.
The proposal of reforming the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) is all good and well. I think there is too much emphasis on the appointment procedure to ensure that the government does not load the commission with their own agents, which is fine, but there is a huge hole we need to address. The big issue is the ECK being toothless in addressing and punishing those who abuse the system. The law already says nobody should use public resources to buy votes. In the recent by elections cabinet ministers publicly used government vehicles including police helicopters. The ECK documented and loudly complained about the abuse but they were told to shut up by the arrogant abusers. There is nothing they could do about it.
It has been strange listening to Martha Karua who was caught on video abusing the system saying Maina Kiai and the KNCHR who busted her and others have no mandate to monitor their actions. It is like a thief saying, yes you caught me stealing but it is not your job to catch thieves. Some logic. What we need are enforceable rules with clear mechanism of enforcement. As it is today the only possible punishment even for open electoral thievery and fraud is a petition against the MP which takes about three to four years to be heard in the High Court and by then the M.P has already collected millions from our tax money for basically being an electoral thief. Look at the case in Magarini where Mr. Kombe is now being declared a non M.P. Is he going to refund all the money he has earned.
We need a system where people caught red handed bribing voters or using public resources can be taken to court and charged with criminal offences. We have to criminalize electoral thievery because that is what it is, a crime against the citizenry.
Secondly we need to set up Electoral Tribunals charged with the responsibility of resolving petitions against M.Ps. The Tribunals should be charged with the responsibility of fairly resolving the cases within one year after the elections and imposing sanctions including fines depending on the nature of the electoral fraud. We should even consider demanding refunds from those who are thrown out for fraud. This will help keep everybody on the straight and narrow path.
My sense with respect to the proposed ECK reforms is that they are rather timid and superfluous. They create the image that something is being done when in reality nothing significant is being done. We need to give the ECK and the Kenyan public tools to combat election robbers because they are worse than armed robbers; actually they are usually armed too. I urge our M.P’s to come with amendments to the proposals to give them real teeth.
The big booboo with the MSF roadmap is of course the delusional timetable of having the referendum by September 2007, just before the General Elections. I am sure the M.P’s are going to throw that September referendum out of the window and they should. It is unworkable. But they shouldn’t throw out the whole timetable. We need clear timelines for this thing to work. My suggestion is that the referendum should be not later than July 2008.
There is talk about holding the referendum and the General Elections together. The idea should be explored and might actually be a compromise position for the two sides. My take is that we should have the Constituent Assembly in session by July/August 2007. That gives us at least four months to negotiate the final draft. Holding both the elections together also saves us billions of shillings not to mention the fact that all M.P.s will support the draft if the wananchi embrace it. Nobody messes with the wananchi when it is election time. And the new government will have a whole new constitution to implement instead of playing games and insulting each other for five years.
The key to all these is implementing meaningful minimum reforms. Without minimum reforms the MSF proposals will be dead on arrival in parliament.
www.timesnews.co.ke/15nov06/nwsstory/opinion2.html
I think the country is ready for minimum reforms and the government has two choices. To negotiate the details with their ODM counterparts and have a harmoniously agreed process or to tough it out in a protracted battle both in and outside parliament. The choice is theirs.
Besides the electoral reforms that have been articulated by politicians I think we need to carefully look at transitional justice agenda. This is what led to the collapse to the reform agenda in the Kibaki era (error). The government came in and promised Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission then soon realized they needed the Moi fellas to survive. We wasted hundreds of millions on Goldenberg Commission and not a penny to show for all that work. Everything became political football. With the re-instatement of people like Kiraitu and Saitoti in the cabinet the Kibaki government is officially announcing the death of the so-called war on corruption.
This is what I propose. In keeping with the theme of “righting historical wrongs” as applied by the MSF to deal with representation of women and people with disabilities, we need transition justice legislations so that we are not at the mercy of whoever comes to power next.
There is no worse historical wrong than the torture, killing, maiming, jailing and detaining innocent Kenyans on fabricated charges just because they were considered to be opposed to the government of the day. There can be no worse historical wrong than the wanton murder of villagers on state sponsored “clashes” as has happened in almost every part of the country. There can be no worse historical wrong then the brutality of the Wagalla massacre and other similar activities in North Eastern Province. All these atrocities are well documented. We may not need to hang the perpetrators, but we need and have to compensate the victims and survivors. Kina Kiraitu promised us they will do just that and then turned around and told us to go to hell. Well we are not heading that direction anytime soon. So lets do a number of things.
One, pass a legislation mandating the compensation for victims and survivors of state repression and state sponsored clashes. Such a law should provide for the establishment of a Human Rights Tribunal to take in the cases either individually or as groups determine what is fair and reasonable and award whatever is appropriate.
I know a group like People Against Torture (PAT), has meticulously compiled records of all sorts of victims and survivors of state violence. We need some action before we burry all these folks and then make glowing speeches of how they fought for the country. Some of them are dying from starvation as we speak. These are people who were dragged from their homes and their families not to mention their jobs and locked up for years on fabricated charges. It is good the country is now trying to honour its freedom fighters and heroes but lets remember the fight for a free Kenya did not stop in 1963.
Even as we search for the remains of our beloved Dedan Kimathi, which I hope we will find sooner than later, let us not jump over the fresh graves of our youth who were killed only yesterday fighting for a better Kenya for all. We need action for these folks and their families and we need it now.
Secondly I think we need to enact a legislation mandating the next government to set up a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission within the first six months of it coming to power. This is a big issue for righting historical wrongs. Kibaki had the opportunity to do it and build a legacy for posterity but he blew it like he did many other things. If Kibaki comes back to power forget the TJRC. Instead we will be stuck with toothless commissions like the Kiruki Commission whose findings are kept secret because even the president knows they are nonsense which were just meant to hoodwink the public. If the ODM comes to power, Kanu will oppose TJRC. They opposed it during the Mutua Taskforce and if they get to power as partners in the ODM they will trash the idea and bury it forever. Even though someone like Raila has expressed support for the idea. He (Raila) will be overruled by his colleagues.
The time to legislate for TJRC is now. ODM is going to be too scared to oppose it now and the Kibaki guys need it to frighten some ODM folks. Regardless of the political games, Kenyans need this thing for real dialogue and reconciliation of the nation so we can truly forget the past and move forward. We all want to move on, but don’t tell us to cover our wounds with salt-paper.
If we can develop a comprehensive minimum reform package which goes beyond the electoral reforms, addresses issues of healing the wounds of the nation and then come up with a workable timetable leading to the referendum we will salvage the review process and move the country forward. Otherwise we are stuck on mark time match. It is killing us.
I also think parliament should take a good look at the proposals from the other road map as envisioned by the National Dialogue Conference which just completed their deliberations at the Kenya College of Communications Technology, Mbagathi. The group that includes some prominent Kenyans including Dr. Kavetsa Adagala, Dr. Mutaka Kangu, Prof. Okoth Ogendo, Mr. Paddy Onyango and my good comrade Kibisu Kabatesi attracted 300 delegates to their forum.
www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143960944&date=11/11/2006
These are Kenyans with very good intentions and they have said they are not fighting any other group. They just want to present their views to Kenyans. We should welcome their proposals. Their idea of doing away with the referendum may be problematic and they could be accused of trying to overstep the Njoya ruling and jump over Wanjiku, but even the Njoya ruling could be interpreted to mean a National Constituent Assembly can replace a referendum. I am personally for the referendum. It is the ultimate kiboko for the wakoras in parliament. My idea though is that it is time to be inclusive, unless of course we have mischief-makers who are up to no good.
One last thing. Originally I thought we could include issues of those massive powers of the president in the minimum reform package but I don’t want to throw people into a fit. It is tough enough dealing with my kid’s tantrums when he wants to play computer games and I want him to do his homework. I don’t have the patience to handle grown ups throwing their silly tantrums whenever we talk about presidential powers, so lets leave that for now. The final constitution will take care of that handsomely. Ama?
The writer is a human rights activist.
The Multi-Sectoral Forum (MSF) has released its report on the roadmap to constitutional reforms. As I observed before their road map is full of landmines, road side bombs and huge potholes. All these could make the journey through it pretty dangerous for the nation. But with a little help and a landmine clearing team as well as road side bomb detectors we might be able to make the road usable and who knows, it might just finally take us to the Promised Land, a new Katiba.
www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143961124&date=15/11/2006
Which reminds me; Kiraitu Murungi is back in the cabinet. He of the failed Katiba fame and the Anglo Fleecing quagmire, complete with alleged (and fully broadcasted) mafia type shake up of one, John Githongo. But I will spare him some lashing today. I am glad he is back, because he is to political commentators and satirists what someone like George Bush is to cartoonists. Good material and a solid punching bag. We are much obliged and our thanks to the president. I am serious. Ask Bush and Rumsfeld. They hanged together for too long and were hanged together by the voters.
But surely, is the president this desperate? What happened to the attempt to woo new people to the GNU to build for 2007? Is everybody else refusing to join the party with Mzee? This is sad.
It reminds me of something that happened in the mid 1980’s when Jaramogi Oginga Odinga unleashed one those classic scathing attacks he used to pound Moi’s government with. Moi was stunned when Jaramogi’s open letter to the president, was published, I believe by the Weekly Review. The nation waited in baited breath to see what Mtukufu Rais would do.
In those days even a single statement against the president was considered as treason, not to mention a whole open letter like Jaramogi did. That evening to remind the nation he was still alive and kicking Moi announced the transfer of Stanley Oloitiptip, that giant of a man, from one ministry to the other. We laughed and cheered at the campus. To us it was proof positive that the big gun at State House was running on an empty tank. The fellas just didn’t know what to do next. That is the same way I see Kibaki’s rather bizarre move of bringing one of his most despised allies back to the cabinet and roping Saitoti back even though there is an outstanding appeal in the courts by the Attorney General against him.
The ODM must be dancing with relief and excitement. The attempts by the Kibaki folks to lure some of their big guns with cabinet appointments must have collapsed completely. Secondly Kibaki has brought in people who add zero political capital to his team unless of course one considers the Meru elders as a big political capital for Kibaki. But that is Kibaki’s headache. Let him deal with it. If Mzee wants to swing us Saitoti as his successor, we will meet him in the battlefield. I hear he (Saitoti) is loaded with cash. Bring it on.
For me the issue today is what can be done to save the MSF roadmap before it joins other initiatives in the constitutional graveyard that eagerly awaits it.
The reason I am saying we need to save the roadmap is that there are some good things in it covered in a lot of misplaced and misguided priorities. What are the good things?
One is the proposal for a review act. The country has waited for a year for that and we need it. The content of the review act is another story altogether and my take is that some of the proposals from the MSF team may go through but a lot more need to be debated and worked out.
For example the idea of a Constituent Assembly (whatever name we want to call it) is good. How we elect it has to be the subject of discussions and negotiations. Whatever we do, we need free, fair and democratic secret ballot elections for the delegates. We also need to deal with issues of proportionate representation. It is not fair that Nairobi classified as a district with a population of 3 million gets the same representation with another district with one tenth of its population.
The other good thing from the report is the affirmative action proposals to be included in the minimum reform package under what the MSF has called "righting historical wrongs". The media sensation of looking at the issue in terms of how much it will cost clouds the issue and the reality that our National Assembly is male dominated and are lagging behind in the whole region. The proposed method of “electing” these representatives is problematic.
The proposal is for 74 women district representatives and others to be picked through an Electoral College through district party lists. The idea of Electoral College should be scrapped. If people want to be representatives they need to be elected and accountable to the electorate not to some party big wigs. Look at the EALA so called “elections”. It is a scandal. Party leaders choose their cronies and relatives or party hawks being rewarded for stepping down for so and so. Even the present nomination of MP’s by political parties as negotiated in IPPG deal of 1997 where parties were encouraged to nominate women is a disaster for Kenyan women. History has proved to us that those nominated have one and only one criteria, loyalty to the leadership of their parties. They have nothing to do with women. Women district representatives should be elected by and accountable to women in their districts. Parties should be free to nominate candidates, but let the women elect their reps so they can hold them accountable.
The proposal of reforming the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) is all good and well. I think there is too much emphasis on the appointment procedure to ensure that the government does not load the commission with their own agents, which is fine, but there is a huge hole we need to address. The big issue is the ECK being toothless in addressing and punishing those who abuse the system. The law already says nobody should use public resources to buy votes. In the recent by elections cabinet ministers publicly used government vehicles including police helicopters. The ECK documented and loudly complained about the abuse but they were told to shut up by the arrogant abusers. There is nothing they could do about it.
It has been strange listening to Martha Karua who was caught on video abusing the system saying Maina Kiai and the KNCHR who busted her and others have no mandate to monitor their actions. It is like a thief saying, yes you caught me stealing but it is not your job to catch thieves. Some logic. What we need are enforceable rules with clear mechanism of enforcement. As it is today the only possible punishment even for open electoral thievery and fraud is a petition against the MP which takes about three to four years to be heard in the High Court and by then the M.P has already collected millions from our tax money for basically being an electoral thief. Look at the case in Magarini where Mr. Kombe is now being declared a non M.P. Is he going to refund all the money he has earned.
We need a system where people caught red handed bribing voters or using public resources can be taken to court and charged with criminal offences. We have to criminalize electoral thievery because that is what it is, a crime against the citizenry.
Secondly we need to set up Electoral Tribunals charged with the responsibility of resolving petitions against M.Ps. The Tribunals should be charged with the responsibility of fairly resolving the cases within one year after the elections and imposing sanctions including fines depending on the nature of the electoral fraud. We should even consider demanding refunds from those who are thrown out for fraud. This will help keep everybody on the straight and narrow path.
My sense with respect to the proposed ECK reforms is that they are rather timid and superfluous. They create the image that something is being done when in reality nothing significant is being done. We need to give the ECK and the Kenyan public tools to combat election robbers because they are worse than armed robbers; actually they are usually armed too. I urge our M.P’s to come with amendments to the proposals to give them real teeth.
The big booboo with the MSF roadmap is of course the delusional timetable of having the referendum by September 2007, just before the General Elections. I am sure the M.P’s are going to throw that September referendum out of the window and they should. It is unworkable. But they shouldn’t throw out the whole timetable. We need clear timelines for this thing to work. My suggestion is that the referendum should be not later than July 2008.
There is talk about holding the referendum and the General Elections together. The idea should be explored and might actually be a compromise position for the two sides. My take is that we should have the Constituent Assembly in session by July/August 2007. That gives us at least four months to negotiate the final draft. Holding both the elections together also saves us billions of shillings not to mention the fact that all M.P.s will support the draft if the wananchi embrace it. Nobody messes with the wananchi when it is election time. And the new government will have a whole new constitution to implement instead of playing games and insulting each other for five years.
The key to all these is implementing meaningful minimum reforms. Without minimum reforms the MSF proposals will be dead on arrival in parliament.
www.timesnews.co.ke/15nov06/nwsstory/opinion2.html
I think the country is ready for minimum reforms and the government has two choices. To negotiate the details with their ODM counterparts and have a harmoniously agreed process or to tough it out in a protracted battle both in and outside parliament. The choice is theirs.
Besides the electoral reforms that have been articulated by politicians I think we need to carefully look at transitional justice agenda. This is what led to the collapse to the reform agenda in the Kibaki era (error). The government came in and promised Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission then soon realized they needed the Moi fellas to survive. We wasted hundreds of millions on Goldenberg Commission and not a penny to show for all that work. Everything became political football. With the re-instatement of people like Kiraitu and Saitoti in the cabinet the Kibaki government is officially announcing the death of the so-called war on corruption.
This is what I propose. In keeping with the theme of “righting historical wrongs” as applied by the MSF to deal with representation of women and people with disabilities, we need transition justice legislations so that we are not at the mercy of whoever comes to power next.
There is no worse historical wrong than the torture, killing, maiming, jailing and detaining innocent Kenyans on fabricated charges just because they were considered to be opposed to the government of the day. There can be no worse historical wrong than the wanton murder of villagers on state sponsored “clashes” as has happened in almost every part of the country. There can be no worse historical wrong then the brutality of the Wagalla massacre and other similar activities in North Eastern Province. All these atrocities are well documented. We may not need to hang the perpetrators, but we need and have to compensate the victims and survivors. Kina Kiraitu promised us they will do just that and then turned around and told us to go to hell. Well we are not heading that direction anytime soon. So lets do a number of things.
One, pass a legislation mandating the compensation for victims and survivors of state repression and state sponsored clashes. Such a law should provide for the establishment of a Human Rights Tribunal to take in the cases either individually or as groups determine what is fair and reasonable and award whatever is appropriate.
I know a group like People Against Torture (PAT), has meticulously compiled records of all sorts of victims and survivors of state violence. We need some action before we burry all these folks and then make glowing speeches of how they fought for the country. Some of them are dying from starvation as we speak. These are people who were dragged from their homes and their families not to mention their jobs and locked up for years on fabricated charges. It is good the country is now trying to honour its freedom fighters and heroes but lets remember the fight for a free Kenya did not stop in 1963.
Even as we search for the remains of our beloved Dedan Kimathi, which I hope we will find sooner than later, let us not jump over the fresh graves of our youth who were killed only yesterday fighting for a better Kenya for all. We need action for these folks and their families and we need it now.
Secondly I think we need to enact a legislation mandating the next government to set up a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission within the first six months of it coming to power. This is a big issue for righting historical wrongs. Kibaki had the opportunity to do it and build a legacy for posterity but he blew it like he did many other things. If Kibaki comes back to power forget the TJRC. Instead we will be stuck with toothless commissions like the Kiruki Commission whose findings are kept secret because even the president knows they are nonsense which were just meant to hoodwink the public. If the ODM comes to power, Kanu will oppose TJRC. They opposed it during the Mutua Taskforce and if they get to power as partners in the ODM they will trash the idea and bury it forever. Even though someone like Raila has expressed support for the idea. He (Raila) will be overruled by his colleagues.
The time to legislate for TJRC is now. ODM is going to be too scared to oppose it now and the Kibaki guys need it to frighten some ODM folks. Regardless of the political games, Kenyans need this thing for real dialogue and reconciliation of the nation so we can truly forget the past and move forward. We all want to move on, but don’t tell us to cover our wounds with salt-paper.
If we can develop a comprehensive minimum reform package which goes beyond the electoral reforms, addresses issues of healing the wounds of the nation and then come up with a workable timetable leading to the referendum we will salvage the review process and move the country forward. Otherwise we are stuck on mark time match. It is killing us.
I also think parliament should take a good look at the proposals from the other road map as envisioned by the National Dialogue Conference which just completed their deliberations at the Kenya College of Communications Technology, Mbagathi. The group that includes some prominent Kenyans including Dr. Kavetsa Adagala, Dr. Mutaka Kangu, Prof. Okoth Ogendo, Mr. Paddy Onyango and my good comrade Kibisu Kabatesi attracted 300 delegates to their forum.
www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143960944&date=11/11/2006
These are Kenyans with very good intentions and they have said they are not fighting any other group. They just want to present their views to Kenyans. We should welcome their proposals. Their idea of doing away with the referendum may be problematic and they could be accused of trying to overstep the Njoya ruling and jump over Wanjiku, but even the Njoya ruling could be interpreted to mean a National Constituent Assembly can replace a referendum. I am personally for the referendum. It is the ultimate kiboko for the wakoras in parliament. My idea though is that it is time to be inclusive, unless of course we have mischief-makers who are up to no good.
One last thing. Originally I thought we could include issues of those massive powers of the president in the minimum reform package but I don’t want to throw people into a fit. It is tough enough dealing with my kid’s tantrums when he wants to play computer games and I want him to do his homework. I don’t have the patience to handle grown ups throwing their silly tantrums whenever we talk about presidential powers, so lets leave that for now. The final constitution will take care of that handsomely. Ama?
The writer is a human rights activist.
