Post by adongo12345 on Mar 22, 2007 19:47:01 GMT 3
By Adongo Ogony
President Kibaki finally gave in to the popular demands of Kenyans to effect some reforms on the Katiba before the General Elections. Considering the vociferous voices within the president’s own inner support team who were adamantly opposed to the move, one can safely say it is going to be a rocky road. Media reports indicate Martha Karua, the Minister for Constitutional Affairs went ballistics telling off her colleague Paul Muite whom he accused of working for some unnamed political forces. One wonders what kind of aliens Muite is working for that is driving Martha nuts.
What is bothersome is that the same Martha Karua and the likes of Kiraitu Murungi who are still adamantly opposed to minimum reforms are the ones who are likely to lead the president’s team into the negotiations.
In my books, Martha Karua has been a colossal failure in the Constitutional Affairs docket. It is a pity that she had to be dragged along kicking and screaming. It is as if she lives in some island of her own where she has no clue what is happening in the country. Her predecessor Murungi had the same mentality of “my way or the highway”, and look where that took him and the president. Let’s hope they will wisen up, and start taking their work seriously because quite frankly I don’t think Kenyans are going to have that much patience with foot dragging and sabotage from the high and mighty.
My message today though is slightly different. I want to extend an olive branch to the Karuas, the Murungis, the Kibwanas na wengineo who basically have been screwing the nation up on the constitutional front. President Kibaki himself told us that Martha Karua works for him and we should stop badgering her. That’s fine. Now that the president has agreed to the reforms let’s assume Martha will continue working for the president and let’s also assume that the president does not plan to stick us up with some fake cosmetic stuff just to show he has done something.
I think the starting point for Kenyans should be that the politicians working with the civil society groups and others will do what is good for the country as opposed to what is good for this or that political group. I am already worried with some voices telling us not to ask for too much. My first question is; ask too much from whom? From the government? This is the fallacy that has made constitution making in Kenyan a nightmare.
In Kenya there is this notion that the government gives us our rights and we should always be grateful and not ask for more than they are willing to give. When Moi “gave” us a few rights in 1997, it was supposed to be “an act of generosity” and “Manna from Heaven” to borrow the words of Habel Nyamu, an ECK commissioner. Of course there was no such thing. Kenyans had to kick some butt and get killed before the government could listen.
The attitude of government giving people their rights tells us that the government always benefits from injustices in society and are therefore custodians of these injustices. While this is true in dictatorships, in a democracy the opposite should be the case. And we are a democracy, are we not?
I think we should approach things a little differently this time around to avoid the nightmares we had at Bomas and during the rundown to the failed referendum. Our approach should be that the constitution belongs to all Kenyans and it is not the business of the government to give or take anything.
Free and fair elections are good for everybody, not just the opposition. Addressing issues of inequities and historical wrongs is the business of all Kenyans, not just the opposition or the government. Making sure everybody gets a chance to vote is good for the nation. Our task is to find things that we all agree on at this stage, implement them into law and prepare for the complete overhaul of the treacherous constitution we have in the country today.
Here are a few things I think we should do.
First, let’s stop the habit of choosing who we are going to negotiate with. Yes we need Kibaki to lead from the front and be honest with Kenyans. We don’t want another scenario where we have day time negotiations followed by night meetings at State House where different agendas are cooked to sabotage the deals made during the day. It has happened before and we are sick of it. All the same we cannot tell the president who to appoint to his team. If I was the president I would send a team that can produce results as opposed to motor mouths with zero negotiation skills. But we should let the president chose his team while those of us on the other side choose ours.
Secondly let’s get away from the us against them mentality. The constitution is not for Kibaki or for Raila and Kalonzo. The Katiba is for all Kenyans. Let us always keep that in mind.
Third we need to do some prioritizing. There are things that need to be sorted out off the bat and they are the following.
One is completing the voter registration and ensuring that all Kenyans eligible to vote are given the opportunity to register. Since the government has indicated they will complete the registration for I.D's by June, let’s strike a deal to reopen the voter registration in July for thirty days. That means the government has to allocate the money for that in the coming budget.
The other one is that we need to decide whether Kenyans living outside the country will vote. The opposition has called for the same and I believe the Minister for Immigration Mr. Konchella did announce sometimes in the past that they are preparing to let this happen. If that is the case then let set the ball rolling and work on the logistics to make it happen.
The two issues above are actually huge. We are talking about enabling millions of Kenyans to vote. Luckily for us these are issues that barely need any legislative amendments. The trouble here is that these are time sensitive issues. We have to agree right now what we are going to do and do it.
The fourth item on my to do list is to frame the overall package of what we think is possible and doable in the minimum reform package so we have some kind of agenda. There is a lot of stuff in the pipeline already. Martha Karua has some bills coming up. The Muite team has something in the pipeline. I don’t know what happened to the Keter bill of parliament setting its own agenda. It looks like it has been integrated into the Muite Bill. This is what I suggest we do.
Let’s withdraw all the bills pending before parliament that has anything to do with constitutional reforms so we can start on the same page. Let’s then bring everything to the table plus any other new items that other groups may want to be included. We should then discuss everything honestly and with no hidden agendas agree on a package that is likely to consist of several bills and take them to Bunge with an agreement to get them passed. We may end up with something like an omnibus bill. My sense is that if we do things right we will end up with a bill that requires two third majority in parliament. This means we have to listen to everybody
The worst thing that can possibly happen is if the politicians start their usual heckling and bar room “negotiations” where some items are overruled even before they are brought to the table. Let us keep away from that brinkmanship and get down to work.
Finally I think it would be prudent and quite helpful to both sides and to the country of course, to have neutral facilitators chair and guide the negotiation process. We have plenty of skilled people who can help steer the discussions to fruitful results. Let's not burden ourselves with belligerent politicians like Martha Karua imposing themselves as chairs. We don't need her machismo, but if Kibaki wants her to be in his team, that is Kibaki's problem.
My advice to the wananchi is to be ready to hit the streets anytime we are being screwed again. We wouldn’t be where we are without those efforts. The struggle continues.
The writer is a human rights activist.
President Kibaki finally gave in to the popular demands of Kenyans to effect some reforms on the Katiba before the General Elections. Considering the vociferous voices within the president’s own inner support team who were adamantly opposed to the move, one can safely say it is going to be a rocky road. Media reports indicate Martha Karua, the Minister for Constitutional Affairs went ballistics telling off her colleague Paul Muite whom he accused of working for some unnamed political forces. One wonders what kind of aliens Muite is working for that is driving Martha nuts.
What is bothersome is that the same Martha Karua and the likes of Kiraitu Murungi who are still adamantly opposed to minimum reforms are the ones who are likely to lead the president’s team into the negotiations.
In my books, Martha Karua has been a colossal failure in the Constitutional Affairs docket. It is a pity that she had to be dragged along kicking and screaming. It is as if she lives in some island of her own where she has no clue what is happening in the country. Her predecessor Murungi had the same mentality of “my way or the highway”, and look where that took him and the president. Let’s hope they will wisen up, and start taking their work seriously because quite frankly I don’t think Kenyans are going to have that much patience with foot dragging and sabotage from the high and mighty.
My message today though is slightly different. I want to extend an olive branch to the Karuas, the Murungis, the Kibwanas na wengineo who basically have been screwing the nation up on the constitutional front. President Kibaki himself told us that Martha Karua works for him and we should stop badgering her. That’s fine. Now that the president has agreed to the reforms let’s assume Martha will continue working for the president and let’s also assume that the president does not plan to stick us up with some fake cosmetic stuff just to show he has done something.
I think the starting point for Kenyans should be that the politicians working with the civil society groups and others will do what is good for the country as opposed to what is good for this or that political group. I am already worried with some voices telling us not to ask for too much. My first question is; ask too much from whom? From the government? This is the fallacy that has made constitution making in Kenyan a nightmare.
In Kenya there is this notion that the government gives us our rights and we should always be grateful and not ask for more than they are willing to give. When Moi “gave” us a few rights in 1997, it was supposed to be “an act of generosity” and “Manna from Heaven” to borrow the words of Habel Nyamu, an ECK commissioner. Of course there was no such thing. Kenyans had to kick some butt and get killed before the government could listen.
The attitude of government giving people their rights tells us that the government always benefits from injustices in society and are therefore custodians of these injustices. While this is true in dictatorships, in a democracy the opposite should be the case. And we are a democracy, are we not?
I think we should approach things a little differently this time around to avoid the nightmares we had at Bomas and during the rundown to the failed referendum. Our approach should be that the constitution belongs to all Kenyans and it is not the business of the government to give or take anything.
Free and fair elections are good for everybody, not just the opposition. Addressing issues of inequities and historical wrongs is the business of all Kenyans, not just the opposition or the government. Making sure everybody gets a chance to vote is good for the nation. Our task is to find things that we all agree on at this stage, implement them into law and prepare for the complete overhaul of the treacherous constitution we have in the country today.
Here are a few things I think we should do.
First, let’s stop the habit of choosing who we are going to negotiate with. Yes we need Kibaki to lead from the front and be honest with Kenyans. We don’t want another scenario where we have day time negotiations followed by night meetings at State House where different agendas are cooked to sabotage the deals made during the day. It has happened before and we are sick of it. All the same we cannot tell the president who to appoint to his team. If I was the president I would send a team that can produce results as opposed to motor mouths with zero negotiation skills. But we should let the president chose his team while those of us on the other side choose ours.
Secondly let’s get away from the us against them mentality. The constitution is not for Kibaki or for Raila and Kalonzo. The Katiba is for all Kenyans. Let us always keep that in mind.
Third we need to do some prioritizing. There are things that need to be sorted out off the bat and they are the following.
One is completing the voter registration and ensuring that all Kenyans eligible to vote are given the opportunity to register. Since the government has indicated they will complete the registration for I.D's by June, let’s strike a deal to reopen the voter registration in July for thirty days. That means the government has to allocate the money for that in the coming budget.
The other one is that we need to decide whether Kenyans living outside the country will vote. The opposition has called for the same and I believe the Minister for Immigration Mr. Konchella did announce sometimes in the past that they are preparing to let this happen. If that is the case then let set the ball rolling and work on the logistics to make it happen.
The two issues above are actually huge. We are talking about enabling millions of Kenyans to vote. Luckily for us these are issues that barely need any legislative amendments. The trouble here is that these are time sensitive issues. We have to agree right now what we are going to do and do it.
The fourth item on my to do list is to frame the overall package of what we think is possible and doable in the minimum reform package so we have some kind of agenda. There is a lot of stuff in the pipeline already. Martha Karua has some bills coming up. The Muite team has something in the pipeline. I don’t know what happened to the Keter bill of parliament setting its own agenda. It looks like it has been integrated into the Muite Bill. This is what I suggest we do.
Let’s withdraw all the bills pending before parliament that has anything to do with constitutional reforms so we can start on the same page. Let’s then bring everything to the table plus any other new items that other groups may want to be included. We should then discuss everything honestly and with no hidden agendas agree on a package that is likely to consist of several bills and take them to Bunge with an agreement to get them passed. We may end up with something like an omnibus bill. My sense is that if we do things right we will end up with a bill that requires two third majority in parliament. This means we have to listen to everybody
The worst thing that can possibly happen is if the politicians start their usual heckling and bar room “negotiations” where some items are overruled even before they are brought to the table. Let us keep away from that brinkmanship and get down to work.
Finally I think it would be prudent and quite helpful to both sides and to the country of course, to have neutral facilitators chair and guide the negotiation process. We have plenty of skilled people who can help steer the discussions to fruitful results. Let's not burden ourselves with belligerent politicians like Martha Karua imposing themselves as chairs. We don't need her machismo, but if Kibaki wants her to be in his team, that is Kibaki's problem.
My advice to the wananchi is to be ready to hit the streets anytime we are being screwed again. We wouldn’t be where we are without those efforts. The struggle continues.
The writer is a human rights activist.
