agenda that has been pushed down
unwilling African throats and we
spend our time creatively interpreting
this so called democratic ideal to suit
individual tastes.
with an emasculated presidency that
we can blame for all the ills that has
befallen Kenya but who does not
have the requisite powers to right the
wrongs we want corrected.
Democracy in Kenya is in ICU and
this is especially surprising after we
promulgated a new constitution
that was supposed to solve all our
governance issues. Suddenly Kenya
was like a ship with a broken rudder,
minus a captain and in a storm.
We have a hamstrung president who
can be bullied by an unrepresented
constituency who claim to speak
for Kenyans. In fact we now have
a curious phenomenon of having
opposition in opposition, opposition
in government and opposition at large.
The political bickering has gone
an octave higher and the hallowed
document that was meant to solve
our milliard problems has become
a millstone on our necks pulling us
down a political abyss with no let up
in sight.
We are at a juncture where it is not
very clear how our democracy works
since very little seems to follow the
laid down democratic processes.
We knew the document was
faulty and we pretended to have
a gentleman’s agreement that the
contentious twenty percent, or so we
claimed would be sorted out once
the document was legal. As it turns
out the document is eighty percent
contentious.
In an effort to be rid of what we called
an imperial presidency we ended up
Kenyans remember spending a
great deal of energy to have the new
constitution in place just to have it
ignored.
A case in point is the effort to get rid
of the IEBC commissioners. Those
wanting to have them removed may
have very legitimate concerns to th eir
continuing to hold office but the same
team has presided over many byelections and their verdict accepted,
when did they become untrustworthy?
They were also the team that was
in place during the last presidential
elections and their performance which
was short of stellar and can be even
termed dubious was challenged and
the court ruled and the protagonists
accepted. The time for protests
was then not now as they have not
changed.
The constitution also laid down
elaborate procedures for the removal
of the commissioners and this was
meant to ensure independence of
the commission. The street protests
are a vote of no confidence in the
constitution as they apply extrajudicial mechanisms to bully them out
of office.
To Ochieng it appears the culprit
here is not Hassan and team but the
constitution and what needs to be
done is for Wanjiku to query if her
will is being done and if not we must
have the courage to address the true
problem, the constitution and stop
meddling with office bearers.
If we accept that street protests are
an effective way of getting our way,
than we do have a real concern that
the next victim after hounding the
commissioners out of office will be
the supreme court which is ‘guilty’ of
ruling not in favour of the protesters.
What has been set in motion is
a recipe for disaster as we shall
perpetually be in a position of
contesting the constitution. If the
constitution is the culprit why not
throw it away and rewrite it. Ochieng
has always maintained that those who
voted without reading the document
are moral criminals.
Those that the constitution has given
the duty of interpreting the document
for us have thrown the spanner into
the works by demonstrating that
the document is not supreme. In an
unprecedented move the judiciary is at
war with itself.