Power To The People?

Power To The People?

It hasn't garnered the headlines that I might have thought it would. But then with the awful flooding in Pakistan right now, most any other international news has become secondary and rightly so. However on August 4 the Kenyan people voted in a referendum on a new constitution and voted in favour of what will become Kenya's first constitution since the original constitution drawn up rather hastily at independence. Indeed since independence Kenya has mostly been governed by men who've had no interest in creating and adopting a constitution that would limit their powers and/or provide checks and balances. But it feels like things are finally changing.

You can read more about the new constitution here.

The question is what will this mean for Kenya? Kenya is a beautiful country and although it is a poor country you'd be surprised by the level of resources, wealth, and infrastrcture that does exist there. Kenya is certainly the economic powerhouse of it's region. However one could easily argue that it is also a failed state in that the government does not adequately or even come close to adequately providing essential services to it's people such as education, health care, safety, water, sanitation, transportation, etc. The reason for that has been a government that's been too concerned with playing politics and less concerned with being accountable to the electorate. Nepotism, graft, patronage, and profiting from power are so entrenched in Kenyan government that it's hard to believe that even the most determined politicians could liberate the Kenyan political system from such a morass of corruption. Indeed those that have tried have often found themselves on the wrong end of a mysterious and unsolved assasination or accident. As those who profit from the way things are seek to protect their interests.

J.M. Kariuki's declaration that "Kenya has become a nation of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars” rings even more true now than when he first declared it over 30 years ago.

However I do think that there has been a power struggle brewing in Kenya with some political leaders who seriously want to see governance that is accountable to the electorate and therefore better serves the people as opposed to the interests of the few. And this constitution comes out of that. Having a constitution could finally provide the framework that Kenya needs to evolve into the nation it's citizens want it to become. I'm cautiously excited and hopeful that it will.