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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Primsident: Burden of Past Political Trauma

Political scientists often advance the theory that a country needs a crisis to draft a new constitution. So do we need a crisis or are we already in one to warrant one? Well, maybe we have both circumstances in our hand if the single obsession with executive power is anything to go by.

Ex-President Moi has just added his voice with a preference to presidential system of governance. And he has the right more so given his 24 years of RUIN as the president himself as be shamelessly reminds us that the presidential system is not dictatorial as politicians want us to believe. Well, we better listen to the professor of Kenyan politics now that the present dispensation makes him look a saint.

The renown Oxford-trained political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi (WANTED by Ford foundation) also bastardized the CoE of intellectual laziness. He opined that the PSC can salvage the simmering political situation by presenting two drafts for a YES-YES vote. And therein lies the matchbox to ignite a raging inferno.

Recent developments points to the two political sides pandering to this ROSSY proposition. But behind this poisoned chalice for proposal hides their true intention to drive the final blade through body Kenya. You cannot fail to see the smartly veiled gimmick to rally other Kenyan tribes against those who have ALLEGEDLY suffocated them with the imperial presidency.

Bloggers here may chose to differ but not before the mass hysteria acquires a life of its own to self-destruction. True, the CoE failed in their mandate by holding themselves hostage to present political dispensation while giving leave to posterity.

But all is not lost. Kenyans have come along way and the politicians can only use old tricks on them at their collective peril. Until then the scent of new constitution may just drift away as the struggle enters its third decade.

18 comments:

  1. Taabu

    Which side are YOU on? Presidential, Hybrid or Parliamentary?

    Is the executive your only area of contention?

    I am for fully parliamentary, and if there has to be any concessions, then Hybrid as presented by CoE.

    Contrary to your assertions, I think the CoE had/has done an excellent job, especially on separation of powers, recall clause, affirmative action, senate, etc.

    FYI, they are not bound to wholly accept the proposals from the PSC and gauging from the work they have done so far, I think Kenyans may finally be seeing light at the end of the very dark constitution tunnel.

    I cannot help but notice the praise you lavish on ex-President Moi, whose preference for the status quo stems from the need to protect his economic assets and also own skin from possible prosecution for all manner of crimes during his tyranny. The fact that he has enjoyed relative peace in his 7 year retirement should not be construed to mean Kenyans have forgotten the atrocities he committed. The TJRC will be his test of life. Let's wait and see, otherwise he should prepare himself for a stint at Kamiti, Kodiaga or Mayani!

    Please spare us the lines on Bw. Ngunyi who is a well known political mercenary and a self confessed embezzler of donor money. I would rather you even talk about Chris Kumekucha whom I also dont agree with most of time but at least we have a platform to poke holes into some of the political theories he peddles here.

    Meanwhile, can you please tell us which system of government you prefer and why? Also do you have any more contentious issues on this draft that you want to share with us?

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  2. @Phil,
    I give it to your passion for parlimentary system. But come to think of the proposed YES-YES on two drafts and see the devil therein. Setting them against others. The wounds are stil sour and raw, ama don't you think so?

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  3. Taabu,

    YES-YES referedum is undemocratic in that it gives no option for rejection.

    Status quoist must be rubbing their hands in glee because a NO vote means a return to the constitution we all have been trying to reform.

    The wounds are raw and will remain unhealed so long as we maintain a status quo.

    I repeat Taabu; what is your own personal preference, and why?

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  4. ...you are being less than honest here about the Yes/Yes option...when central province will vote 100% for presidential and the rest of the country votes 100% for the parliamentary, then what!...it will be them versus us, chaos...we either take it as it is or reject it as it is...is the COE mandated to deliver two drafts?...

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  5. Mwalimu T,
    The truth is we can have both a presidential and prime minister system-we can have anything we want if we just choose to look away from the personalities and instead at the issues

    bad workmen always blame their tools and that was all MO1 was showing us through his comment.

    Having said all that, i prefer we go the PM way, without the president and parliament with full powers to check and balance.

    anyway, the circus continues. here comes Postman Ali and his black&white cat. hata yeye wacha afanye lawsuit kwa America

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  6. HA HA HA... Who voted NO in 2005. The Swahilis say, Ukipata tumia, ukikosa jutia!

    I support a Parliamentary, the UK one, but with an obvious powerful opposition and a strong (very independent Judiciary), otherwise, hii, ya Kitonga, Luwere!

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  7. Parliamentary or presidential systems are good so long as we have responsible leadership.Sadly this is what we lack in kenya. Our polititians are taking us round because they want a hotly contested referandum that will pit "us against them" and finally culminate to a force in the next general elections. Its a game that most do not realise as we continue yapping and winning.
    Checking the draft, do we have provisions that guarantee rouges find it hard to attain high elective positions and even if they did are there checks that discourage and punish irresponsible leadership. Now this is what should be of grave concern.
    Kanoo

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  8. @Phil,
    Parliamentary or presidential is OK provided the the buck stops with ONE PERSON. We are collectively held hostage to the nasty experience from our past. All the fears fears flying around stems from past nasty and brutal experience.

    Kenya has never had TRUE LEADERSHIP. Instead we have all along smarted from rulers hence the battle and cry for REBIRTH.

    The problem is you cannot constitutionalize VALUES that define a leader. You havee seen what a 'saint' can do and turn into with imperial powers. Once bitten numerously shy as confirmed post 2003. You only entrust leadership to pretenders at our collective peril. They are wolves in sheep skin.

    You can choose to go parliamnetary but imagine the tagged MPs who have a price. Well, the recall clause may sound sweet on paper but the present court delays will disabuse you of any joy in that provison.

    In a nutshell either of the two system will do BUT a single irreplaceable caveat: INDEPENDENT CHECK and/or BALNCE.

    Just as you said YES-YES denies people the chance to reject, reducing life to two mutually exclussive options is no better democracy, ama?

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  9. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Deroo amesema uhakika.

    Tulipata Uhuru tukakosa nidhamu kwa miaka 45. Sasa, majuto bin majuto yame tukumba mikoani. Shida tele vijijini, ufukara umetamalaki, viongozi na raia hawajui mbele wala nyuma. Mbinu mbya, hatuna. Dhamira ya taifa imedhofika kwa sababu uharibifu ni lengo letu la kila siki. Kwa hivi sasa bunge lime geuka na kuwa mbuga ya fisi wa ufisadi.

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  10. Dishonesty! That sums it up.
    The journey of our constitutional review as launched by Willy Mutunga, Kamau Kuria, Oki Ooko Ombaka and others has always been hinged on one very important tenet; ‘People-drivenism’. It is clear even to the dumbest moron where, to whom and how the people of Kenya want to invest the ultimate executive power, that power to govern them. The usual opportunist political cartoons will attempt to play around with our brains by coining little statements about how a YES-YES vote is undemocratic and all that crap. To these less noble minds; how about we subject three documents to the referendum. If the idea is not imposition of a minority view to everyone else, why don’t we have a purely presidential draft, a parliamentary one(hybrid, or whatever else they want to call it) and the present constitution to the voter as constitutional options. The inclusion of the present constitution in the plebiscite addresses the gimmickry advanced by these ODM people who pretend not to understand that a NO vote is basically a vote for the current constitution. What is so democratic about that?
    It is very simple; If you want to govern Kenya, enlist yourself as a candidate in the Presidential election, pray that you get voted for by more than half of voters and voila, there you go! It just beats logic that the same cabal that advances the idea of electing mayors and county council chairmen through universal suffrage is the same one that beats a quick retreat about the same when it comes to the election of the country’s chief executive. It’s called dumbness.
    A President deriving absolute authority to govern directly from the people and thoroughly checked by functional Parliamentary committees (and Parliament itself as a whole) , the judiciary, the national election commission and other institutions is what Kenya needs. That President should be elected alongside a running mate who becomes Vice President, and after the election the President nominates government ministers and their deputies who are then subjected to Parliamentary approval before the final official appointment by the President. That ensures, hopefully, that we do not end up with criminals like William Ruto, George Saitoti, Otieno Kajwang and others in the cabinet.

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  11. Vikii

    Your comments show that you obviously have NOT read the revised harmonised draft and have NO idea why is called a harmonised draft in the first place! Here's why I say so:

    Firstly, although your alternative views are welcome, and much much better than those theories propagated by Chris Kumekucha, you cut a pathetic figure trying to lecture us veterans of the constitutional struggle regarding the pros and cons of a presidential or a parliamentary system of government. The current constitution is neither of the two. The Wako draft was a presidential system of government and it was totally rejected in 2005 referendum.

    We must aim to separate STATE affairs from GOVERNMENT affairs. State and government are two different issues, but the difference is not visible to some of these PNU geezers. Our original Lancaster House constitution was parliamentary before Kenyatta, Mboya, Koinange and other ruffians decided to bastardize it and create an absolute imperial presidency for Kenyatta to rule for life.

    As it is, for the last 20 years, everyone agrees the current imperial presidency constitution that is the curse that Chris' mentor TOM MBOYA bequeathed to Kenyans requires total overhaul.

    We must have truly independent, accountable, transparent, just and non-partisan judiciary and legislature. Both the current constitution and the Wako drafts (propped up by PNU sympathisers) miserably failed to guarantee these basics.

    Therefore, if these two presidential systems of government are unwanted, what alternative do we have left?

    On the other hand, Nzamba's harmonised draft (although not a pure parliamentary system) strikes a fair and balanced middle ground for proponents of both systems of government, and delivers a clear separation of powers (ie. state and government), while tackling other issues like accountability, checks and balances, as well as devolution. The draft also gives Kenyans powers to amend the constitution without reference to parliament!

    Thank God for the harmonised draft, we shall no longer have fake, deceptive and get-rich-quick pre-election schemes christened MIRACLES and the likes.

    Kwani, if I may ask, does a majority political party in parliament derive its mandate from stones or from the people?

    If the PNU side trully believes it has numbers on its side, let us go to the ballot with the harmonised draft as it is, then we see if it will fail the referendum test because it is parliamentary and the so called CEO is not directly elected by the people. The fear of having a parliamentary draft voted for was evident in 2005 when Kiraitu Murungi led a walk out at Bomas, and instructed Wako to re-draft what Kenyan people had already made up their minds on. The price of this cock-up is still being paid to date!

    One hopes that when Vikii takes his sabatical leaves from blogging, he will come back refreshed and more enlightened. Obviously folks, we still have work to do.

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  12. ON MIGUNA MIGUNA WHO IS WORKING FOR ODM ILLEGALLY:

    What Kumekuchas, Phils, Taabus and Mwarangethes of the blogosphere want to sweep under the carpet because it's embarrassing their boss Raila:


    What the supreme law of the land-constitution- says about Dual citizenship.

    A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some country other than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a person who was born outside Kenya. made and registered such declaration of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament

    So Miguna Miguna has broken Kenyan law as it is for now and faces jail and still penalties, Kajwang' of Immigration are we together? He also has a serious rape charge involving a young African refugee lady back in his Canadian city of Ontario. Will Raila uphold the law he swore to protect?

    http://www.canlii.org/eliisa/highlight.do?language=en&searchTitle=Search+all+CanLII+Databases&path=/en/on/onca/doc/2008/2008onca799/2008onca799.html

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  13. Poor Phil,

    One wonders when he will ever realise that it is not always a PNU-ODM contest. The buffoon seems to have his head stuck deep into the guts of the 'Ugly one'. His brain must be suffocated from all the 'passed gas'.

    Kenyans are not dumb to realise a senile hair dyeing 65 year old grandfather is trying to rig himself to power through the back door. We will reject that trash dimwit!!!

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  14. People trying to rig themselves into power should not and cannot form the basis of our embrace of a mediocre governance system.

    The idea of a PEOPLE DRIVEN constitution-making process did not end with the rejection of the Kiraitu/Wako conmanship. Arguing that the rejection of that draft meant a rejection of a presidential system of government per se is not just lame, it is queer. Additionally, the views collated more than 10 years ago should not be binding today. Since the fraudulent ‘government’ these crooks came up with was not willing to facilitate a fresh collation of views and the launching of a fresh new process, the most reasonable thing to do is to identify the areas of contention in Nzamba Kitonga’s so called harmonized draft and offer all the options, you know, all the positions in the form of different drafts. What is so hard in doing that? If truly Kenyans are for a Parliamentary system of government, and these people keep yapping about it all the time, I do not understand why the proponents of that system so much dread the possibility of having that system placed on the ballot paper alongside the other systems proposed by others. If it is not a minority view they plan to push down our throats, what is it? A majority view? Why not allow us to settle that contention? Why?

    Regarding the childish one that all those opposed to the design by those keen to grab political power through the back door are sympathizers of the PNU, we can only laugh. Kiraitu Murungi, Amos Wako and the government they served in in 2005 attempted to push a minority view down our throats. The team leader for the NO vote was my Party secretary general, Mutula kilonzo. At the political level, he was with Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, William Ruto, Daniel Moi and others. None of those belonged to the PNU or the ODM. So attempting to credit any political party with that rejection is stupid, plain and simple!

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  15. Vakii @10:13 PM...

    "A President deriving absolute authority to govern directly from the people and thoroughly checked by functional Parliamentary committees (and Parliament itself as a whole) , the judiciary, the national election commission and other institutions is what Kenya needs..."

    Why are you contradicting yourself? Don't you know the meaning of the word absolute? A person with ABSOLUTE POWER cannot be checked! Ask Moi who is now laughing at us in retirement despite of him and his goons raping our country for 24 long years. When shall we ever learn?

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  16. Raila calls Kifaki's bluff!!!!!!!!!


    PM says Mau tree planting on




    By DAVE OPIYO and ANTHONY KARIUKI
    Posted Wednesday, January 13 2010 at 11:30

    Prime Minister Raila Odinga Wednesday allayed fears that the Mau Forest tree planting exercise was in danger saying it will go ahead on schedule.

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    He also added that he believes President Kibaki will attend the Friday re-afforestation of the country's largest water tower, contrary to reports that he would give the ceremony a miss.

    "The government will be there," said the PM during a news conference at his Treasury office in Nairobi.

    "Remember that the President announced during his New Year speech that he will lead the exercise of planting trees in the Mau."

    The tree planting exercise, which ambassadors, Cabinet ministers, the Kenya Army and friends of Mau are slated to attend, appeared to be in jeopardy Tuesday after officials of the Mau Secretariat were told that two briefing sessions for President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga had been called off.

    However, Mr Odinga confirmed that the event will proceed "on Friday, January 15, 2010 as I announced earlier."

    He said the country had been "engaged in plenty of talk about the need to conserve the Mau and, indeed, all our water towers," for the last two years adding that the time to act was now.

    "We cannot procrastinate any longer.

    "I appeal to all Kenyans from all walks of life; the civil society, the religious leaders and all our citizens to show up for this exercise at 10am on Friday," said Mr Odinga.

    He said that the Secretariat, charged with coordinating the eviction of settlers and rehabilitation of the forest will "shortly be announcing the programme, including travel arrangements for the tree planting day."

    The Prime Minister said the country's economy had suffered as a result of environmental degradation and changing climate patterns and that the Agricultural and Tourism sectors were the hardest hit.

    "For much of last year, we were dealing with the devastating effects of drought in which we lost human lives, crops and thousands of livestock.

    "The government had to divert billions of shillings from other areas of the economy to finance drought recovery operations," he said.

    Mr Odinga told politicians that the conservation of the environment was of too much importance to be politicised. He was referring to leaders drawn largely from the Rift Valley, who have been opposed to his efforts to reclaim the Mau.

    The leaders, led by Agriculture minister William Ruto have been on the forefront of opposing the Mau evictions terming the as "inhumane".

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  17. I inclination not agree on it. I think warm-hearted post. Particularly the appellation attracted me to read the intact story.

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  18. Evict and reafforest!

    Meanwhile, check this out:
    "The fight for freedom clearly takes many interesting forms."

    http://www.kenyaimagine.com/23-Fresh-Content/Politics-and-Governance/On-Canadian-Barristers-and-Hubris-and-the-Sanctity-of-Freedom-fighters.html

    ReplyDelete

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