WHY BBI IS A PEOPLE'S AGENDA
WHY BBI IS A PEOPLE'S AGENDA
Constitution-building is a delicate and intricate process which requires ample reflection and careful choices.
In the spirit of Nation building, African constitution-builders and politicians embarked on a process of constitutional reforms since the early 90s.
In Kenya, the process of Nation building was started by our Founding Fathers, handed over to the heroes of second liberation and continues today in what we call the BBI.
When our Founding Fathers emerged from the liberation war with fresh wounds, bloodied faces and years of incarceration, they had only one desire.
They had vanquished the enemy, alright, but the task of bringing together 42 nations into a single nation-state, was still daunting.
They knew that this would be a journey. They knew that summoning the consciousness of 42 nations to a singular purpose under the nation-state would take constant negotiations and re-negotiation.
When we look at the experience of our Forefathers in this noble duty of Nation building, we quickly realise that this process of constantly reviewing our nationhood would only happen through the unremitting search for a constitutional consensus.
This position was strongly advocated by another group of our heroes known as the constitutionalists. Apart from being the architects of our new state and the engineers of our new economic order, they pushed for the practice of constantly building a constitutional consensus.
To the Constitutionalists, Constitution making is an endless process, a good Constitution is a moving target as opposed to a rigid end-point.To have a good Constitution means having continuous dialogue on the current needs of our people and continuously building consensus. In order to have a good Constitution, we must first conceptualize constitution making as being a process first, and then an act after.
Although the act of Constitution making is an end-state in itself, the regress process that involves constant negotiation and re-negotiation of our nationhood. That section or clause of our Constitution that we see as good today may not necessarily serve our interest tomorrow and may require us to amend it.This philosophy of constitutional consensus is what guided our founding fathers who went through as many as four constitutions before landing on a workable consensus.
According to our second vice-president, Joseph Zuzarte Murumbi, there is nothing wrong with Kenya that cannot be fixed by what is right with Kenya, this include sections and clauses in our Constitution.
This is clearly evident through the history of Constitution making in Kenya. What was wrong with the Littleton Constitution of 1954, was made right by the Lennox Boyd Constitution of 1958.When this constitution did not serve our people's interests, it was replaced by the Ian McLeod Constitution of 1960. And the search for a common ground continued until the independence constitution was adopted. But even then, this constitution was adopted as a cease-fire document to facilitate independence, with the promise of continuous amendment/improvement.
After our country attained independence in 1963, the Lancaster Consensus was replaced by a new consensus and the cycle of constantly negotiating our nationhood continued.It is in this line that President Uhuru Kenyatta cautioned Kenyans against constitutional rigidity during his 2020 Madaraka Day address. After clearly analysing the needs of our people, as the head of State, President Uhuru came to the conclusion that unless we amend this Constitution, we may end up being slaves to the law.
Our Founding Fathers and constitutional heroes did not intend our constitutional order to enslave us. They constructed it to serve us. And when it ceased to serve us, we are meant to borrow from the example of our Founding Fathers and rethink it. More so if the National Question of the day requires a constitutional settlement.
Today, our country Kenya is staring at a constitutional moment.
And the National Question goes back to the advent of our multi-party system. As a matter if fact, it was after the re-introduction of political pluralism in 1992 that negative politics begun to dominate our national arena.
The question at hand and one requiring a constitutional consensus is actually on how we can be able to resolve the winner-take-all situation within a context of competitive politics as required by democratic practice. Also, of much importance is to come up with a system that will ensure that we fulfill our democratic credentials without reaping apart the diversity of our nation-state.
To build our Nation, we must bring to an end the politics of "us versus them", this "tribe (s) versus that tribe" the "poor versus rich" the "hustlers vs dynasties". That is not the foundation on which our nation was founded.
It is the highest time that as a people, we started exercising our democratic rights without allowing it to divide us along the ethnic lines. As we exercise our democratic rights, the cardinal principle must always be our unity in diversity.
Even though the 2010 Constitution gave us some remedies, it did it completely resolve or entrench the zero-sum game. We still remained with a system in which the winner takes it all and the loser goes home with nothing, a situation that almost tore down our country in the last election.
Despite the optimism we had in this Constitution, we are still in the zero-sum constitutional dispensation that created conflict since the advent of multi-party politics in 1992.
This problem can not be resolved using elections, what we need is to amend the 2010 Constitution. It will be a tragedy if, come subsequent elections, we will not have resolved this dilemma.
As Kenyans, there are there are three critical issues of National Importance that we must think about in line with constitutional consensus.
These issues are as follows;
With regard to this issue of political inclusion, we need answers to questions like;
Instead of a zero-sum constitutional equation, can we adopt a positive-sum equation?
Can we adopt a constitutional arrangement that takes care of our diversity as a people?
By political inclusion, do we go with the parochial interpretation of creating positions for individuals or are we talking about a constitutional consensus that accommodates all communities in an election?
How do we create Constitutional consensus that makes it possible for any Kenyan to lead this country while working hand in hand with his or her brothers and sisters from across the Nation?
In Kenya, the issue of equity in the distribution of opportunities and resources has always divided us we recently witnessed during the Senate debate on revenue distribution.
Our political practice has been such that, resources and opportunity go to those occupying positions of power. And that is dwhy elections are so divisive and emotive.
During this Constitutional moment, we need to get an answers to the question on whether it is possible for us to entrench the principle of equity in distribution of resources and opportunities in the Constitution.
In so doing, we shall be able to give ourselves a Constitution that will guarantee that no one is disadvantaged when it comes to distribution of opportunities and resources.
The third issue that we need to consider as we seek to create a constitutional consensus is with regard to contestations and violence that occur after every electoral cycle.
Since the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1992, our country's economy has always shut down one year to the election as it anticipates the turns and twists of the election.
Equally, the economy is always on a go-slow as markets wrap themselves around the emerging political constellations. This means that in every electoral cycle of five years, two years are wasted exclusively attending to electoral matters.
The Quest to liberate our land was also fueled by the desire to drive hunger, ignorance, disease and unemployment from our midst.
As Kenyans, we have to come to the realisation that unless the economy is sustainably expanding to accommodate the youths graduating every year, then we are robbing our children their future.
Therefore, as part of the National Question, we are called to create an environment where enterprise can thrive by continuously attracting capital into the country.
Premature campaigns and endless electioneering creating anxiety, akin to what we are witnessing creeping into our Nation today.
If we consult our history, this is not what the constitutionalists at independence wanted for us. And if we do not change it now, when we have a constitutional moment, this problem will plague our country for years on end.
It is in view of these three issues that President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Rt Hon Raila Odinga are inviting Kenyans to start having an honest conversation with one another as a way of building a constitutional consensus during this Constitutional Moment.
