A LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF KENYA

A LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF KENYA

Whereas it is lawyers who write constitutions, it is the people who live them. Whereas it is politicians who debate issues it is the people who vote on them. Whereas it is governments that run a country it is the people that fund them. It seems to me that any document that does not house the security, welfare and happiness of its people does not qualify as an acceptable tool of governance. While it is necessary to have a commonly agreed framework to house national aspirations, we must not allow the process to be hijacked by those we give the stewardship of authority and power to make decisions on behalf of the people.

The new Kenya Constitution (2012) was voted in to replace the old constitution and hailed as one of the most modern documents of its kind in the world. Ostensibly the hope was to right the wrongs of the previous constitution and ensure the equity, equality and security of the people of Kenya. Nonetheless while the previous constitution housed national life for over 50 years, the current constitution has not lasted a decade before calls for a major overhaul are in the offing. And it is not hard to see why.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the complexity of the new constitution led to the first disqualification of a head of state after an election by universal suffrage. The new constitution has embedded tribolic arguments in government fiscal policy encapsulated in regionalism and raised the cost of government to the extent that in less than five years the country is facing an unprecedented debt crisis. Indeed, there are calls for a referendum that suggest that the current situation is untenable. These seemingly isolated events point to foundational flaws in the construction of the national enterprise.    

While a competent qualitative and quantitative review of the current constitution should be conducted to identify the key issues that are the heartbeat of the Kenyan people in order to anchor their corporate destiny in freedom, justice and truth, there must be sufficient guarantees provided and expounded for the health, wellbeing, happiness and fiscal success of its living, dead and unborn citizens within the global context of nationhood. The former are superficial if the latter benefits are not availed to the people.

The constitution is not a document; the constitution is the design, architecture, framework and infrastructure on which a nation is built and secured for generations. Its construction cannot be superficial it must be of sound ethical and moral socio-economic foundations that withstand the test of time and deliver the dreams of one generation to another. It must deliver the desires of a good parent to their grandchildren. Visionaries who designed the construction of the railway in 1905 put in place a framework for commerce, advanced the basis of nationhood, benefits of education and supported the development of region and international engagement for 100 years! Constitution makers need to be visionaries charged with exercising the privilege to create a future for a people centuries ahead of their lifetime.    

It is arguable that constitutions can be used to entrench governments in power, used to settle political scores, advance tribal conflict, balkanize national resources, secure riches of the privileged, and impoverish and make slaves of citizens. Nonetheless, these purposes say more of the designers than the constitution itself. A constitution achieves as much as the objects it sets out to create. A code among thieves, the ethics of a profession and policies of a government can deliver no more than such norms determine to accomplish.

People of Kenya, we enjoy the privileges of earth but for a season. Select from among us men and women of vision able to articulate and document such knowledge as will bequeath our country 200 years of ethical economic advancement and guarantee our social success in athletics, agriculture and aeronautics. Select men and women among us to impart wisdom to coming generations and speak on behalf of the living, the dead and the unborn. Let these men and women study the times and the future with strategic insight as is humanly possible. Let them ask the God of all creation for Solomonic wisdom in gifting this nation with documentation that will create years of unparalleled peace and prosperity. Select men and women who understand that we, this generation, are but custodians of the past and stewards of the nation’s future. This is our lot and the die is cast. It is our duty to lay the foundations and framework in our time to secure the destiny of not just ourselves, but all the humanity that is the franchise of the people of Kenya. To such and to such only should we entrust our common future.   

God Bless Kenya!

Allan Bukusi