Devolution: How our MPs ran away with the trophy

In the past one week, diverse groups protested against the decisions of the Parliamentary Select Committee to tamper with no-controversial issues of the draft constitution.

Someone suggested that the MPs sitting in the PSC had arrogated to themselves the power to write a fresh constitution.

I did not support that view until I saw what emanated from their final day’s work last week. Women protested at the deletion of a clause that guarantees women and men equal rights at the onset, during and at the dissolution of marriage.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right, but in Kenya, where male chauvinism holds sway, this may be long in coming.

The MPs have also deleted any reference to civil society’s role in the running of government. This means that civil society’s oversight role has been brought to a rude end after very commendable gains. Let me emphasise this loss.

In the now discernible plot to cannibalise the draft constitution and to deny it the sharp teeth it had gained, the PSC denied the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights the protection of the constitution.

It is well known that KNCHR is the one most lethal witness to the 2007 post-election violence. In a way, it is the only effective government institution that acts as the people’s defender. MPs have mortal fear of this institution.

Other groups that lost the plot are religious groups which demanded the inclusion of a clause defining when life starts, and the local governments which feature nowhere in the draft.

Local governments are the closest governmental entities to the people. When taking part in the activities of local government, citizens feel they are participating in decision-making on matters that affect their daily lives. Now is the time for local governments and the people to protest. That is where I come in.

From the beginning, the PSC went about its business with stealth. The MPs soothingly hoodwinked Kenyans that they did not have to vote on any issues because there was consensus all the way.

But what else did we expect? What can you expect from a Council of Poachers vested with the power to curl white rhinos and elephants from a national park? They will keep reassuring you that the numbers were being retained at manageable levels while they decimate the herds for gain.

The MPs at the Great Rift Valley Lodge were always shown strolling about from negotiation halls wearing feigned innocence. But all they are doing is sharing power among themselves and making all attempts to exclude others.

It was a question of ‘scratch my back and I scratch yours’. That is what they are calling consensus. Let us face the facts.

A two-tier system of government based on regions that has emerged is a form of political devolution locally known as majimbo. It is a restoration of the 1963 form of governance which was abandoned in preference for a unitary state.

It was perceived then that this form of government promoted tribalism, ethnicity, sectionalism and disunity. Under that form of governance, local authorities were created and dissolved by the majimbo governments.