The makers of our constitution at the time of our country`s independence did not intend to preserve an unchanging society, but instead meant the constitution to invariably adapt to the needs of our dynamic society.
Even though the independence constitution gave the president a carte blanche to run the nation as he deemed fit, experience has shown that such unfettered powers are often misused. The president like a deity became omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
There are many among us today who bear the scars of this tyranny. In fact the protracted fight for the second liberation was informed by the dictatorial tendencies that the right thinking public saw in the leadership of president Moi and his predecessor.
Devolvement of the powers vested in the presidency and its usual appurtenances was then the buzz word. Apparently when president Kibaki came to the helm of leadership, those close to the pedestal of power changed tact. They wanted to maintain the status quo. Even after the post election violence, they do not even want to hear anything about a constitutional dispensation that cuts a swath through the imperial presidency.
They prophetically harp on the existence of a constitutional crisis if executive power is shared between the presidency and the Prime Minister (Parliament). This pretence besmirches the intellect of Kenyans. Our reaction to these inanities is not amusement but bafflement, verging on rage. These can only be politicians who are out to have Kenya stop being a democracy in any meaningful sense. That is why they are too busy furthering their selfish interests at the country`s expense.
In the words of Barry Goldwater, a 1964 Republican Party candidate, “Those who seek absolute power even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.”
Rather than think of that which is best suited for the country some they are busy throwing spanners in the works in the constitutional making process. And their best arsenal is of course to impiously force the country in to a horrendous political ping pong. It is this execrable behavior that engendered the hostilities that plunged this country in to a near holocaust. Yet the same politicians unashamedly elect to deliberately ignore this fact. Mao Tse Tung (1893-1976) said that “Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”
There is a very thin line between the two so much so that it only requires the snafus and preposterous verboten to trigger an unprecedented bloodletting. Of course you and I know that our politicians have plenty of this in stock. Sad as it is, they have already set the tempo. And our hopes of having a new constitutional dispensation can only dissipate.
Should we stand aside helplessly, gnashing our teeth, as a section of our politicians line up to deride the efforts of the Committee of Experts (CoE) just as they did with Constitution of Kenya Review Committee (CKRC) in 2005? We cannot allow this to happen again. It is first and foremost our peace as a country that is at stake.
Secondly it is our tax billions that will yet again go to waste. My exhortation is to patriotic Kenyans. We must stand up and say no to these political machinations. So don't just sit there moaning about how the country's going to the dogs. Sign up and let's kick some ass.
Tome Francis,
Bumula Constituency.
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