Change should fortify devolution not just tinker with the Executive

"This is going to be the year of change in this country. We want to look at our governance structures and see what needs to be rectified. We want to change this country, and the change movement is on. Anybody who does not want to move with it will be left behind.”

The Daily Nation reported that Mr Raila Odinga, the former fire-eating opposition chief-turned bosom chum of his previous nemesis President Uhuru Kenyatta, spoke thus on February 14.

The statement is rather like a command: Here is the truth; kneel here.

A pattern is emerging. Hardly two months after his March 9 handshake with the President, ostensibly to foster unity of Kenyans, Mr Odinga exhumed Shariff Nassir’s infamous maxim.

He declared that the Constitution would be changed wapende wasipende (whether some of us like it or not).

EDUCATE

And he called those of us who thought Kenya’s politics had become confused since his rapprochement with the President blind and deaf.

Now, a good teacher would tell us why we are blind and deaf and why the change train would leave us on the platform.

A better teacher would start by telling us what change, whose change, why change and how change, is coming.

Indeed, a political party exists in part to educate members and supporters in particular, and electorate in general, on the issues of the day.

A good politician, as was Julius Nyerere or Jesus Christ, is a patient, descriptive and illustrative teacher.

I am one, so come with me. One, in my view Kenya does not need a change of the Constitution that will expand the Executive.

WEALTH

Rather, it needs to enact policies that will put money in the wallets of Kenyans across the land and ensure they keep more of their money in their pockets.

Two, Kenya does not need the offices of president and prime minister to stop its massive and ticking youth unemployment time bomb.

It needs a president or prime minister whose policies will create wealth and jobs, make credit available and affordable, and create entrepreneurial and investment opportunities throughout Kenya.

Three, the economy will not grow because Kenya has a prime minister and president, but because the policies the Executive puts in place ensure Kenyans everywhere have money to spend, and, unimpeded, buy goods and services, and invest and expand investments and livelihoods.

Four, Kenyans, and foreigners alike, will not invest and keep their money in Kenya because we have deputy prime ministers, but because the policies of the government guarantee peace and stability and ensure the security of the people, their investments and their livelihoods in all regions.

SECURITY

Five, Kenyans will not create wealth because they have deputy presidents and leader of the Official Opposition, but, because of the policies of the president or premier, they are assured of safe, reliable and affordable transport that ensures mobility between safe homes and secure places of work.

Six, Kenya will not be peaceful because it has a parliamentary style democracy but because the policy of government ensures that not a single region, not a single person, is left behind or left out, of the train of development.

Indeed, policy must ensure the last region or person is the first to be reached by the train.

Seven, such are policies that ensure and entrench inclusivity. Inclusivity does not consist in expanding the Executive to accommodate tribal chieftains bitter at losing polls.

Inclusivity will ensue from policies that produce and increase opportunities for all peoples and places of Kenya.

INCLUSIVITY

Last, the foregoing explain why I have been increasingly critical of the March 9 public handshake over a private deal between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga.

Indeed, I was suspicious of the handshake before it happened. How? Why?

Because I argued that after the two presidential elections of 2017, Kenya needed a national conference (inclusivity) to chart its way forward.

I opposed boardroom deals (exclusivity). These, I said, amount to private contracts between politicians on Kenya and not for or about Kenya and Kenyans.

It is why I argue that the change of Constitution that Kenya needs is that which strengthens devolution and checks over-representation but not that which tweaks and tinkers with the Executive.

There is my why change, what change, whose change and how it powers inclusivity.

Now ask Mr Odinga to teach you why a new structure of government will help promote inclusivity.

But, tell him, he cannot stop the train of debate nor impose only one such train on Kenyans.

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