This is the season for national renewal

Much of the heat generated by the constitution debate was based on the assumption that constitution-making is a one-day event.

Although Wednesday was the day Kenyans decided on the constitution, it was by no way the destiny-fixing day. It was the beginning of a healing process.

Kenya has serious problems and the result of the referendum is not about to solve them. The so-called historical injustices – real or imagined will not be addressed immediately. Indeed, it will take years, maybe generations, to address land issues, abuse of power, and impunity.

The most important thing about this referendum is that it allows a chance for national rejuvenation. We should regard this like the allegorical eagle which, after 40 years, is unable to survive.

But it has a choice to make: either die of ‘‘old age’’, or fly into some remote mountain to begin the painful process of renewal. In seclusion, the eagle must pluck out its beak, talons and feathers. It is fed by others. After the process, it lives for another 40 years.

Kenya must choose a similar process. And it is not just a beginning; this renewal has been ongoing. It picked up pace with the agitation for political pluralism during those fateful days in the early 1990s. Lives were lost during the saba saba riots. Many were maimed, both physically and emotionally, some never to recover.

The blood that was shed continues to nurture a dream; that one day, this country will have institutions that protect people from excesses of the wielders of power and their proxies. It is a painful process. But change is discomfiting. History is really a story of people demanding change and others resisting it and therefore stunting growth.

It is human to feel secure in the status quo. The reason a baby cries all the time is because it ‘‘wishes’’ to go back to the womb where everything is perfect; no struggle, no pain. No chewing food, no cold, just pure bliss. But this is short-lived. One day, after nine months, the child is violently ejected into a hostile world.

The kicking and crying is a protest against change, just as some Kenyans are protesting and will protest after the referendum results are out. Yet this ejection is the greatest step towards growth. After years of misrule, feelings of deprivation and oppression are trapped in many of us.

For some, it is an individual feeling. For others, it is collective. Whether these feelings are based on fact or not is not the issue. An imagined sense of oppression and injustice can cause as much tension as one based on reality. After the referendum, what next?

Will Kenya become a paradise? Will it become hell? On the one hand, a prophecy of doom will only fray sensibilities. On the other hand, romanticising a new constitution is equally myopic. A constitution is an institution stipulating the way society has decided to be governed.

It sets out the rules of running a country’s affairs. It is devised to shape our interaction, and allows a society to probe it past, present and future. Since the way we relate is bound to change depending on circumstances, it means the constitution is not static. It is not the Ten Commandments. It is a framework on which Kenya will begin to readdress governance, economic and social issues.

Dr Mbataru teaches agribusiness at Kenyatta University.