Proposed minimum reforms are hollow

Kenya Tmes,
03 April 2007

By Oduk Peter, Nairobi.

The clamour for a new Constitution by Kenyans has taken unnecessarily long. This road has been very bumpy and riddled with technical hurdles, some political others legal. Even after all these efforts, Kenyans do not have anything to show for it in terms of a new constitutional dispensation.

This year, a lot of effort seem to be focused on the General Election that is due at the end of the year. The Opposition has been lobbying for minimum reforms, a call that the Government seem to have finally accepted after the President’s speech during the opening of the sixth session of the ninth Parliament.

However, the proposed reforms are mainly aimed at levelling the political ‘playground’ to offer equal competing opportunity to all aspirants and have very little to offer towards improving the lives of the common mwananchi. I recognise that the political arena should be made fair for all.

But something is seriously amiss when reforms are not pro-common citizens.

I believe that we need a new Constitution far more than a new Government. This is because the Constitution will provide checks and balances to any Government in power. In the absence of a good Constitution, whatever Government in power is likely to become rogue.

The Opposition and other proponents of minimum reforms have threatened to boycott the elections should no minimum reforms be made. I would rather they boycott elections for comprehensive reforms, because they were elected on this platform. In the run-up to the 2002 elections, the then Opposition united under Narc party and pledged to give Kenyans a new Constitution in a hundred days. Therefore, instead of demanding minimum reforms, they should use the remaining months to elections to iron out the contentious issues in the Wako draft and deliver a better Constitution for us.

If this is not then they should call for the postponement of elections to tackle the issue of the Constitution once and for all.