Call for Constitution change referendum a political fraud
What you need to know:
The main concern for most Kenyans right now is improvement of their lives.
As it is, the call sounds hollow and designed to favour the ruling class.
The motive seems to be to hand power for those in the political winter.
If it ain’t broke, why fix it? This fits in very well with calls for a referendum to change the Constitution.
One school of thought has it that the phrase was, in fact, aptly coined for the United States government by Bert Lance, the director of the Office of Management and Budget in Jimmy Carter’s 1977 administration. His intention was to save the US billions of dollars by getting it to adopt a simple motto: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’
He is quoted to have remarked: “That’s the trouble with governments: Fixing things that aren’t broken and not fixing things that are broken.”
CEASELESS CAMPAIGNS
Politics has tightened a noose around our neck. In Kenya, we eat, breathe and live politics by seamlessly moving from one campaign to the next without even pausing to take a breath.
Given our history around elections, it is anxiety-inducing. For what follows premature campaigning is the usual tribal machinations and divisions that blight our elections. We are already witnessing realignment and counter-alignments along tribal lines. Various groups have started to queue behind their potential candidates for the presidency come 2022 before the ink even dries on the dotted line.
TRIBAL TENSION
For a country beleaguered by ethnic strife every electioneering period, we ought to tread carefully after elections to diffuse tribal tension and unite the country first. We are four years away from the next election. Why can’t campaigns wait until at least the last year?
If any referendum is required, it is about how long we need to campaign. Perhaps, the only law that needs changing is one that offers open-ended time on political campaigns. It is time we put a legal cap on it. We spend too much time and energy campaigning at the expense of development.
POLITICAL HYSTERIA
There are myriad social and economic challenges that require the elected leaders to be grappling with. This level of campaigning captures the nation in a near frenzy of perpetual political hysteria. Leaders just carry on to cement their legacy for selfish reasons rather than hit the ground running to offer the services they had promised us.
It is sheer political fraud.
What is the emergency within the governance structure that cannot wait and needs to be changed in the here and now?
COST BILLIONS
The IEBC chairman has already indicated that the referendum will cost billions of shillings to conduct and we still have to foot another bill for the main elections soon after that. Would this be a wise expenditure, when we still have much more to do to pull Kenyans out of poverty?
Asking for a referendum now is premature and it looks as if we are taking two steps forward and 10 back. It is also not convincing that the referendum will bring any meaningful change to the lives of the struggling Wanjikus and Atienos of this country. If, indeed, the aim is to change the governance structure so as to improve the lives of ordinary Kenyans, then let us hear those plans first. As it is, the call sounds hollow and designed to favour the ruling class. The motive seems to be to hand power for those in the political winter.
JOB MARKET
The main concern for most Kenyans right now is improvement of their lives. Stability in the job market, peace and security will be more meaningful discussions than half-baked talk of a referendum.
A true democracy must be responsive to the concerns of its citizens. The alternative is dictatorship, which should not have a place in modern Kenya. Leaders will be going against the wishes of the masses if they allow a referendum just to benefit a few at the expense of the majority.
BIG FOUR
What needs to be on the lips of every leader is the speedy realisation of the ‘Big Four’ agenda. This is an ambitious programme that needs to be seen coming off the ground sooner rather than later.
The urgency Kenyans require from their leaders is on how to increase investment to improve the economic base and create jobs. And that can be achieved within the current Constitution and governance set-up.
The call for referendum is just a disruption to development goals which have a direct benefit for the masses. It is also a disruption to our economic stability.
PUBLIC SPENDING
Indeed, we need to reduce the massive public bill as a whole; but this can be tweaked by the Legislature and the Executive without the encumbrances of an unnecessary referendum. It is disingenuous to talk of cutting down on public spending but in the same breath commit the country to a huge budget for a whimsical referendum.
Five years is no time at all to achieve much in governance but something can still be realised if leaders put their heads together and utilised this period on development rather than politics.
We are too drunk with politics and it is time to sober up. Indeed, if it ain’t broke why fix it?
Ms Guyo is a legal researcher. [email protected].
