Of all the evils that Kenyans have had to endure under the folly of the political class, devolution is the most devastating. Wait before you dismiss me as a devolution devil-I am not against all forms of devolution. I am against foolish devolution that squeezes the gigantic American system on a nation the size of one of the fifty states that make up the United States. What we have now are hundreds of big mouths masquerading as lawmakers who are paid huge amounts of money to do nothing while millions of Kenyan children go hungry.
Was Kibaki aware of what he was doing for Kenyans and to Kenyans? I do not think so!
Was Raila aware of what he was doing to Kenyans? I also don’t think so!
Kibaki was lost in the moment as he felt that he was on the verge of becoming an even greater part of Kenya’s colorful history-of course in the wrong way, although he did not feel so. Raila wanted to deliver to “blind” Kenyans the promise of the constitution so as to live up to his self-devised description of “Mr. Do It.” He was not worried of the product being delivered.
The Leviathan? Kenyans are stuck with a document that allows a long list of thieves to keep on drawing from the national purse to the point of driving the nation to the woods financially. Recently, there was a call to cut the wage bill. Guess who was targeted…..the ordinary workforce that consists of Kenyans who earn less than kshs. 400,000 per year! As if that is not enough, the county governments have become microkingdoms for small kings and tyrants who have allocated themselves colossal sums of money for spending areas that make Gaddaffi’s pornography tab look quite small. Remember Ken Lusaka from Western Province and his kshs.50 Million entertainment fee? Or was it less than that? Each county has its own tale of shameless embezzlement, silly investments, a rebirth of cronyism, and baby-shit prioritization. All this at the cost of hard working Kenyans who bear the burden of raising the money that these lazybones are misusing.
But people get the type of leaders they deserve. Kenyans have never understood the real meaning of education. Even the most educated among us exhibit the primitive urge of tribe whereby a respected scholar can be found backing an empty-headed leader because they share “tribe.” Therefore, when “baba” said that the constitution was good, all had to line up and approve it.
But no one has let Kenyans down than the wannabe constitutional order advocates who are working hard to oversee the implementation of a bad document. The CIC should be at the forefront in identifying the rotten parts of the constitution and sensitizing Kenyans on the need to start the process to discard such parts and replace them with what actually works for the Kenyan people. But alas! these fellows are also answerable to certain political forces and are unwilling at best and unable at least to ruffle any feathers.
The corrupt and ideologically bankrupt civil society remains the only hope that the citizens can use to realize a genuinely Kenyan constitutional order. The prominent faces in the civil society need to realize that their work is cut out for them and start putting their house in order. It will no longer suffice to write, send and follow up on proposals for funding to international donors and foreign embassies, funds that are later diverted to dubious activities and personal accounts. Hey, Kenyans know the civil society has always sought financial jackpots from foreign countries, and this is no big deal so long as you use the energy you derive from feeding using the funds to push your fellow thieves in the law-making circles to allow for a new constitutional order. We do not need a new constitution. What we need is a repeal of some areas that impose upon Kenyans an unrealistic system of government that they cannot support in terms of finances.
For starters, it is utterly stupid to have 47 counties. The media that follows Vera Sidika and Willy Paul, the fellow who scored a D+ in KCSE and decided that it would sound better as a B+, should pick up on this good idea and start telling Kenyans the dangers of 47 counties with thousands of selfish thieves populating the various offices in these counties. We need seven (8) counties modeled along the provinces that used to exist.
We do not need the Senate. They have no function in our country and even the dumbest among us knows this. The word that has been going round is “overrepresentation.” And that is not the problem that the country is suffering from. The correct word is “misrepresentation.” The people elected to represent others are not representing anybody and when they do, they report false or erroneous things that do not benefit the people some of these idiots allege to represent. For example, who speaks for the naked, dirty, kids inTurkana who go to school, not to learn, but eat the beans served during lunch? The beans happen to be these kids’ only meal for the day. Julie Gichuru of Citizen Television has covered this issue before with exceptional detail and compassion.
I cannot overstate the fact that Kenya lacks a constitution that represents the reality on the ground.
By Onchari Oyieyo
Onchari Oyieyo is a Political Scientist and an expert in International Law and Foreign Policy.