Rights abuses mobilised Muslim support for new laws

The new supreme law provides all Kenyans with a chance to rediscover, reaffirm and reassert their nationhood

The Preamble of the new Constitution states in part: “We the people of Kenya, exercising our sovereign and inalienable right to determine the form of governance of our country and having participated fully in the making of this Constitution: Adopt, enact and give this Constitution to ourselves and to our future generations”.

The Promulgation of the Constitution is an expression of the popular and sovereign will of the people and reaffirms the supremacy of the people. It radically shifts the paradigm of government from a collection of, for and by a few men to that of the people.

A government “monopolised” by a few men is unjust, inequitable, corrupt and arbitrary. The story of the Muslim community in Kenya best illustrates these assertions. The new supreme law, therefore, provides all Kenyans with an opportunity to rediscover, reaffirm and reassert their nationhood.

In the run up to the 2007 General Elections, the Muslim community which felt victimised by President Kibaki’s government mobilised politically as a potent force and supported the bid of Orange Democratic Movement’s Raila Odinga.

In a bid to claw back some of the lost support, on October 15, 2007, President Kibaki appointed the “Presidential Special Action Committee to Address Specific Concerns of the Muslim Community in Regard to Alleged Harassment and/or Discrimination in the Application/Enforcement of the Law” chaired by Mr Abdullahi Sharawe.

The committee completed its work and finalised its report by March, 2008, but it was almost one year later that it was able to present its findings to the President.

The Committee documented an endless list of discriminatory practices and violations. These included the issuance of Identity Cards and Passports and the net issue of citizenship; persistent, deliberate and wanton violation of fundamental rights and freedoms of Muslims by the police largely under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

The committee recommended that government should not condone or perpetuate discrimination and violation by itself or its agencies on account of one’s religion, ethnicity, race and origin.

There is little or no evidence to illustrate that the government has engaged itself in a deliberate process to implement the recommendations of the committee.
The concerns of Muslim community represent deliberate and systemic acts of discrimination, violation and marginalisation cutting across the successive regimes since independence.

For a long time, the Muslim community on a false pretext turned to the President and other political leaders as ‘givers and defenders’ of rights. Rights were turned into privileges and affirmed or violated at one’s discretion.

Wave of awareness

Under siege from Kibaki’s security apparatus, humiliated and frustrated by the broader formations of his government, the Muslim community allied itself to Mr Odinga in the run up to the 2007 General Election partly as a defensive strategy that sought to “protect” it from further transgressions of the Kibaki regime.

In retrospect, while the wit and wisdom of the strategy now appears to have been misguided, it was a defining moment for the community in mobilising politically to champion for the rights discourse.

The events leading to the 2007 elections precipitated an unprecedented wave of awareness and political astuteness and assertiveness that has irreversibly reshaped and recast the Muslim body politic.

It pays little to turn to individuals to protect your rights. Over the last couple of weeks and following the Kampala bombings, scores of Kenyan Muslims have been surrendered to Uganda with none of the political leaders making any pronouncement or intervention as to the illegality or unconstitutionality of the arbitrary actions.

This time around Muslims seized the opportunity in joining hands with the rest of Kenyans to push for to the enactment of a new Constitution as the sustainable ‘giver and protector’ of their rights.

The constitution as an impartial and supreme legal instrument is the tireless, consistent, persistent and apolitical defender of rights.
To illustrate the overwhelming Muslim support for the new Constitution, the North Eastern Province is a classical case.

The NEP is undoubtedly overwhelmingly Muslim. In the events leading to Kenya’s independence and the 1st Republic in 1963, the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies appointed the Northern Frontier District Commission on October 5, 1962 to among other things “Ascertain and report on public opinion in the Northern Frontier District regarding arrangements to be made for the future of the area in light of the likely course of constitutional development in Kenya”.