Why is Kenya so afraid of reforms and so shy of change despite her new 2010Constitution?

While the Kenya Executive seems to dither and blinker sometimes getting blinded by the complexities of change, it is quite clear to many who have been engaged with steps of growth in the country that the Kenyan Judiciary should NOT be at this time at same level as the Executive or the Legislature. It should be independent. Standing proudly head and shoulders above the fray- higher than the snow on Mt Kenya- to give this nation of diversity balance. To set the example of the management of such gifted resource both human and environmental.

But the Kenyan Judiciary stands tried. Kenya is afraid to take change head on. And yes, even as they say change comes slowly and that it respects cultures and traditions we have not done what we have overnight. The implementation of the Constitution cannot remain too painful to be done in a country where we cut people easily, win marathons and where we pull our act together fast after terror attacks. When we write in the Constitution that we have accepted change and given it to ourselves as a nation, we need to believe it. To task ourselves, to challenge ourselves and to account for our hopes and struggles.

I know why reading today, of November 2013, what Justice Willy Mutunga said at the launch on a book on election petitions in Kenya made me shudder and wonder. There is nothing wrong with books. I understand that the times- 2013 in particular- have been  rough and tough for the CJ and for Kenya in many ways. But our 50 years of celebration of Kenya's independence should count for change too. It is not books and laws that are lacking. It is integrity.Our focus to achieve and not just for ourselves. Slaying the dragon of greed and corruption. All have had to fight their way there, Kenya must do so now.

I hoped and still do that because of our multiple challenges and the fact that in 50 years we cannot boast about being even Cub Tigers as the Philippines and Indonesia can in spite of massive poverty, nor come close to the Four Asian Tigers or Dragons in terms of development we could still say that our New Mother of All Laws the 2010 Constitution has a spirit that can bind us together. That we can invest and allow others to because of security in this attractive land. That all tenders or building infrastructure will be competitive and well researched. That we can stop once and for all dangerous driving which many and that depends on a willing people and keep HIV/Aids in check. The list is long regarding education and health services, salaries and reforms in the police force. The rule of law.

In about 50 years, Europe put herself together after the Second World War. Norway was a poor country in 1969 and the country has been built on proper management of the finding of oil, tax system and on immigration to the US by the poverty ridden people who built their country from heavy toil and investing back home until we have what stands today. Fifty years is important a period in individual lives as in nations. Challenges have been turned into opportunities elsewhere why do we wallow in ours? 


I wanted to hear certain hope in law from the Chief Justice of Kenya but I hear the opposite. Why? Many died to ensure an independent Judiciary especially since Kenya now has a bigger governance arrangement and small commissions appointed by politicians, dissolved by them can become a law unto themselves and help the return of dictatorship as the President can make decisions that leaves Kenya unprotected. For Kenya is neither the years that have passed nor the persons in power today. Kenya is. I wanted that deep change and this we must get. We cannot justify otherwise.

When the struggle for a new Constitution was at its febril levels in the 90s, one of the reasons for the demand, in fact the main bone of contention was the reduction of presidential powers. 

As I write the Judicial Service Comission, the party that should have stood together to oversee the strengthening of the Judiciary has been sent home by the President. I watched lawyer Elisha Ongoya interviewed on KTN tell how precarious that is. And not only that, how embarrassing for the judiciary. And it does not stop there, there is an activist who has gone to court to show reason why the Chief Justice should be sacked. 

I would take this lightly were it not that all falls into a plan which one heard about at the time of the election of March 2013. I mean then, certain people who read hope in the CJ were seen as making a terrible mistake. Yet our hopes were banked on the fact that this is a CJ who told us that Kenya's new Constitution of 2010 would protect everyone from the simplest hut to State House. 

And moreover, many feel he knows injustice in his own skin. He experienced detention in Moi years, oppression. Many feel betrayed but that is not the reason why it is said he has to leave his job. The Executive did feared his stand on other issues but he rules with six other judges not alone. That he has a strong human rights track record which no one can contest. What is happening or what happened? But besides laying hopes on individuals, many times theyquote other countries in cases that have vexed Kenya. Do they also rely on small bodied to judge electoral petitions or only theirConstitutions? What is the CJ of Kenya saying and not saying?

And indeed during the court case to judge the presidential election petition  election of 2013 we were told about the precedents of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Here are the details of that petition and the ruling which was gazetted in Kenya . http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116963/supreme-court-judgment-presidential-petition 

Answering to many queries on the fact that the election petition was time barred for the petitioner, the Chief Justice said he was impartial and that the case was easy to decide since the other side did not have good evidence. So this should be over. 

Still in my chest is faith that when such issues come up and they are bound to return, we shall have an independent judiciary to deal with the matter. But not so the Chief Justice. He speaks of how the court should not be the place for such petition. And I wonder then why we fought for a strong mother of all laws, a constitution that leaves us all dry under a national umbrella of laws that can stand all storms. Why does the Chief Justice, CJ, now speak of a smaller body when what we wanted was the big body? 

And this at a time when with regard to media law, the Executive, has formed such a small body of their own accord which all have said will, together with a media bill of 2013 sit on Freedom of Expression? President Uhuru Kenyatta made his amendments but no, they have not taken off the yoke of abuse of law from the Bill and for the fifty years of Kenya's freedom journalists are planning yet another demonstration to object to his amendments that do not make that law better. We have a Constitution but we are skirting it and running away clad in old clothing of I do not know what type?

For the CJ also went on to lament that Kenya is deeply divided on different ground and the list went: Ethnic, tribe, clan, religion, class, culture and race. And again from him we expect to hear that the rule of law is here in Constitution 2010 to be that balm that crosses these ridges and rifts of division by first and foremost protecting such things as land distribution, resources such as oil and equal sharing of wealth in a good tax system at least trying to imitate the Four Tigers, the various Commission Reports such as the Ndung'u Report and that of the Truth and Justice Commission (for what it is worth). Instead we hear lamentations all around and again wonder why we are shy to marry the law of change with all the pain it might take because it is better that way than in any other style.


Kenya suffered in 2007 when such a petition was not made by Raila Odinga because he did not trust the courts. Now am on this 
not because of a time warp but since the Chief Justice two day ago explained again that he could not have pleased everyone. 
Did he really say that "The courts cannot satisfy everyone in an election dispute?" The Supreme Court, I thought was not meant to please anyone but to stand b. It was supposed to serve justice. He was referring to the judgement that his court announced in March that Jubilee had won the Kenyan General Election.

Again, that was only natural and is the norm anywhere to expect that the three arms of government: The legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary are separated for the good fo the people. It was actually more than a sigh of relief considering that it is before the law where we should be equal and Kenya is in the news many times for the need of equality before the law since impunity is nursed by the rich and powerful who also happen to become the main political players. So we did end up in the Supreme Court after the Election of 2013 and whereas many took the ruling for what it was, it did not fail to be examined over and over again and it still stands on trial in the eyes of many. 


At 50 years of independence, in Kenyan we are still at the point where memories of what it took to get the first Constitution and Self-governance in 1963 from the British are fresh in every sense of the word. Some  Kenyans can still sniff the smell of the paper the law was written on, the feeling in the air, the touch of Kenyan people without the ugly differentiation of ethnic brand, even if the roots of identity as belonging for the sake of benefitting those one was close to were thrust in both colonial and and first three presidencies Kenya has had.

For every year on the Madaraka Day, which is celebrated on 1st June, people have gathered at our Freedom Park and other spaces in the country and sang and recalled our history. On Jamhuri Day on December 12th when finally independence came, the same is done. Dancing to the same happy song of independence, celebrating. Flying past the President and his guests in style, armies marching past and a couple of times also citizens daring to make a point.

I recall how many were arrested in the Jamhuri Day of 2008, for reminding MPs as the President gave his speech that all had to pay taxes. I distributed with others thousands of T-Shirts with the logo "No Taxes for MPs, No Taxes for us, utado?" The arrests is a long and different story but that Day the message reached the top. 

Five decades are over. The foundations of justice, are still wanting. Many have worked for equality before the law. It took long to get the August 2010 Constitution. We have to read in earnest and practice what we laid out in Chapter 6 of the 2010 Constitution. Integrity. We have to admit that without integrity in leadership we cannot prosper. It is still basic. The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary must all be independent and free before the country can celebrate years of independence. The people must be free to say that and still be regarded as the most important whole where as these powers remain parts. 

Who watches the Watchers? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Why Kenya cannot kiss a free Press

Watch this but be prepared...  

http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/5298609-Weltjournal--/episodes/7057587-WELTjournal-- WELTjournal + tvthek.orf

When the Westgate attack happened in Kenya, the media was censored 

Have you watched this ORF link?  You can blame whom you will for the tragic Westgate attack, a huge blot on Kenya's security but what I call the Eastgate is in that clip above. And for this, we have only ourselves to blame. Media silence too. Meanwhile in the mix is the worst thing that could be happening to Kenya now.  A media Bill that is tailored to gag journalists. 

To return Kenya to the terrible days in which people were tortured for imagining the death of a president, for speaking... for being dissident, killed. Media freedom and killings are closely related for who wants to speak or show them when there is fear? 

The timing of a media gagging  Freedom of Expression in Kenya has helped us to see where this country is. In a bad place. It is not the time to argue about media irresponsibility. That has its place. Has had mechanisms. This is not surely where our problem is and we should know it right from the State House to the smallest hamlet as Chief Justice Dr. Mutunga says when he speaks of justice.  I know the Kenyan Judiciary is also in the dragnet. This is not a good time. It is not time for our wedding of Kenya, not even for kissing welcome change. The negotiations are tough.

The content of the Media Bill in question is untenable. It is not a matter of courting controversy, it is betrayal. Kenyans have fought for and need a free press especially now.

It does not matter how much some MPs such as one I saw try to put journalists on the carpet about every line of the Bill. The Committee for the Implementation of the Constitution led by Charles Nyachae has spoken about the unconstitutionality of this Bill.  It is illogical.

But Kenyan MPs are still in 2013, defending an unconstitutional Bill. They are the only ones arguing it is constitutional. Further, it appears that this Bill might be passed by Eastern African countries. 

In Kenya it is now on the President's table. Many are talking about the return of the Mois days in Kenya with one journalist writing that we might as well take the key and re-open the Nyayo torture chambers. But when you see the ORF documentary above, when I see it, I ask if the torture chambers were ever closed and where indeed the media has been at times? But the Bill.

If the President signs it, it becomes law. But this unlawful act in itself would give a chosen group power to oversee the media but that body is bound to sit on media. If the President does not sign it, it still is a poor omen. I can see how authors, bloggers and all will be hounded down. Made to pay fines in the millions. Imprisoned. 

Books? Bookshops already feared in 2008 to stock It is our Turn to Eat, by Michela Wrong. But publishing chances have increased the world over and distribution of books is not dependent on governments any longer. Sometimes I smile in my tears. Not even the news is.. wake up and smell the coffee! Snowden and Wikileaks did not teach you?

Media should be more alive to the end of mainstream control itself too and welcome it. In Kenya, media has censored itself before. It has been silent when it should have queried some things more specifically. Was fear with us all the time or is it political calculations for our own benefit? We need openness. Whispers?

We do not need those in Kenya now. There is an outrage but it could be stilled by a nod in one direction and a signature written or not written. Already, if you ask me, for policemen such as the ones I have seen above, the nod is given. Outspokenness is banned. 

Media must run. Government must learn. It is behind the times for there are Internet outlets and so many other media one cannot silence in the world. Why not kiss democracy? 

The mainstream media cannot stand proud. In a country divided into almost two blocks of power, it was too easy to see which candidate each media endorsed and that was not because of advertisements. Then came a huge Breakfast which almost all media shared with the new president. 

Is this not part of the reason why media should be so under government in Kenya. This sends out all the wrong signals but is it not past the time for signals. The signs of the times came earlier. Why do we doubt we were meant to fear even before? But fear takes us nowhere. You do not need to be afraid of truth.  

And this is why Kenya did not need a baggage ridden top, a presidency that is questionable on the rule of law. But I heard the President say that even those who advised him not to run for the presidency as he is indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) are his enemies. Was all advice about assessing integrity for leadership which is also part of the Kenyan Constitution 2010, Chapter 6 to be termed evil? Now he is the president. Impunity is still not tolerable. We have to follow the rule of law. We are not where we should be in this. We cannot cheapen a Constitution made with so much pain and struggle. 

When I look at this video specifically, I have strong reactions. I wrote about GPO Oulo and Oscar. I saw them at work very soon before they died and that was not so far from where I was. It is not something I can wish away. It was meant to scare and disturb human rights activists completely. Shake them into silence, leave their families trembling and it did. Left everyone casting stones on those who are outspoken. But can we go on like this forever? 

Kenya, the things we try to forget and sweep under the trees or make them part of our manure. Yes you want silence so that you can develop in peace but I think it should be the other way round. You need voices and noise so that you can begin to see. I speak to you now...on my reactions to the video above.

Oh yes, you can keep saying that we do not need activists. Do all against them. You remind me of Chesterton's The Donkey... "when fishes flew and forests walked and figs grew upon thorns... Starve, scourge deride me... in this case there are no secrets kept. 

Why all these words? Are these victims able to speak? Watch the faces of the women closely when their children are killed. And then they speak of fear. Then some say, but it is not possible to keep the pain. Who answers for this? How many reports do you hide? Why have you made those who ask enemies did you not want to know the truth? These people who died.

They will haunt you still...in thousands, do you hear? Is this not the way it happened in Nazi times? It happens like this and slowly you are cooperating, endorsing in silence.

You don't even need words to understand
these shocking things always around us
the very, very, ugly and disturbing face of impunity in Kenya and 
the stories media did not take up before, will they do something now that the guns are trained not only on media but also on NGOs ( Russian style?)  

First they came for so many and we did not speak because we did not believe it? And when we spoke we were inconsistent, shrugged our shoulders and tried to forget. We shall not. Who killed journalist Francis Nyaruri in 2009? Where is his story? Who silenced his family?

Kibaki and Gaddafi's retrogressive legacy in the African Union but the ICC Kenyan case continues

Bishop Desmond Tutu has a million signatures against pulling out
of the ICC but the political class does not care

Bishop Kipsang Muge: Military man turned cleric with a call for justice. Like many unaccounted for Kenyans, he died for opposing oppression and misrule  http://www.dacb.org/stories/kenya/muge_kipsang.html

The poor and downtrodden of Afrika are not there when diplomacy shuttles are made on their behalf by people appointed by politicians. They read bad signs such as the death of so many Dafuris. Dafur. Dafur. Dafur. Frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
But what are they to do? Some of them did questioned why Omar al Bashir of Sudan was in Kenya to celebrate a new Constitution in 2010 as he had a warrant of arrest. Why he was free in  Kenya, a signatory to the Rome Statute? Who really cares about such things at the top. Believes them? They signed for convenience even then. When it goes against power,  you can withdraw. And shout that this is against Africans since all the dead are white bones. 

Some people raised questions still. Even walked away from high tables when Bashir visited. But they did not hold the invitation cards. The feast was on. You can get rid of noisy people like Bishop Alexander Muge like a fly and life continues. 

Voices of reason are intolerable. This is Africa. The one that is blaming the West left right and centre for all woes including hauling our own presidents to the Hague.  Busy regional hub airports can close for the arrival of chosen guests. Even military ones for wedding guests. Ask Zuma. 

Hundreds of civil society organisations in Afrika want to claim victory for Human Rights on the continent but many politicians stand in the way. They are big. 

Today, many human rights groups are opposed to all African countries pulling out of the International Criminal Court. But they are not the ones who pay for trips to Addis in Ethiopia for Extraordinary meetings. The big ones will cook, serve and eat and maybe something will remain for the poor to eat. Human rights? 

The turning away from the ICC would make sense if the continent were stronger on human rights issues and was apt in mechanisms. If the Africa's Human And People's Rights Court were strengthened. This getting away from ICC and going to our own weak courts so interfered with by the Big Five ( the animals are innocent) is something Mwai Kibaki started to talk about because of the Kenyan cases before the International Criminal Court. The proposed turning away from the ICC is not hinged on justice. It is based on evasion of justice and the cry that DUE PROCESS cannot be part of a ruling president's life. But he went to the elections aware of that. Was Africa and not used as a protective shield?
Is this a blessing in disguise for the future of Africa? Will there be
a new form of resistance birthed by this? 

Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has a signature campaign which is about to hit the one million mark but the African Union has voted in favour of pulling out of the Rome Statute which founded the ICC because they say Africans are the only ones who are presented to this court and found guilty. Tutu asks a strong question: Who will prevent another genocide?
A history of justice delayed and denied

But does Kenya deliver on justice? 

Does Kenya? In Kenya today it is not only victims of the 2007 violence that have not seen justice but many people who were outspoken and were killed: Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Joseph Mboya, J M Kariuki, Bishop Kipsang Alexander Muge, Journalist Julie Ward, Masinde Muliro, Karimi Nduthu, Fr. Kaiser, Many missionaries, the list is endless. There are also many disappeared young people. So the Kenyan Parliament had recourse to the ICC so that justice could be delivered. At that time the slogan was: Don't be vague go to Hague. Rhyme and reason at play.
Even more: The Kenyan Constitution recognises that the ICC is a Kenyan court. 

Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto cases before the ICC are not affected by this withdrawal

Kenya's foreign Minister Amina Mohamed kept double speak going but everyone knew that Kenya was the main reason why many African nations were going to pull out of the ICC or at least pass the resolution to. Foreign Affairs office in Kenya was candid if contradictory. "Which other Head of State is sued in office?" Amina asked. And now there is great jubilation. They  are happy. It has passed, this resolution voted by countries that were not even members to the treaty like Sudan. Next is to ask for a deferal for Kenyan cases.

Kibaki former president of Kenya is delighted. When Mwai Kibaki was president, he made big efforts to get African states to see that Kenya could not afford this ICC case. He made trips himself regarding this. Earlier the shuttle diplomacy in which Kalonzo Musyoka went round Africa meeting heads of state to ask them to reject this case was spoken about by all. 

The late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has won too. He had promised to see to it that this strategy worked for Afrika against this Western court thing. Well you see we have everything we need. The naysayers know we have: Sharia Law, The African Human and People's Rights Court and each their own laws. We are fine. In case we have some disputes that would lead us to needing to persecute for crimes against humanity our own governments will help us to sue them for their excesses. They will sue themselves.

There are developed courts in the Middle East that handle international problems. They are improving and growing. We can do without the West and all its empty promises, its empty pomps. We are as safe as can be because there are no problems we cannot handle whilst fighting terror with reason. There is no need to be afraid. USA has not signed the Rome Statute...rather signed and unsigned. Russia too and China! Hurrah we are super and big on human rights. We can make it.

But this since this passing of the resolution does not mean the case of Uhuru Kenyatta (President), William Ruto (Vice- President) and Sang, a journalist  brought before the ICC  are ended, they will go on and ask for these cases to be deferred. You see there is no such a thing as justice delayed. And never, ever denied. They would like to defer the cases for good reasons. To serve their country in their respective offices to which they were elected. But the crimes they said earlier had nothing to do with the elections. 

The president in all integrity told the people that he and his Deputy if elected would present themselves before the ICC and follow due process. It was as good as a campaign promise. It is forgotten. A president is too busy to be away for such small matters. He was not summoned as a President, now he is one. What's the bother? Kenya needs protection as in its position without the President at home there is a risk to international peace. Did you not see the recent terror attack? 

Everyone knows that Kenya is the island of peace and justice that protects all neighbouring countries from crumbling. It protects Somalia and that is why Somalia is such a peaceful land. Kenya vanquishes Al Shabaab. That is why terror attacks cannot happen with a sitting president at home.  Even Obama and Gordon Brown know that. They saw terror at Westgate happen in Nairobi. People died. The President needs to be in the country full time for his full time job in protection of The human and people's rights of Africa. 

Kenya a rich but 'potholed' nation cries freedom; Justice hides in a new Constitution?

The late Wangari Maathai. She is sworn in to power but promises to be a hummingbird... 

If we could borrow a little from the big minds we have, young  and old. Dead and alive. If we could, despite our weaknesses take what we know seriously, search for the rebirth of a nation, if only we could.
Hear and listen. Act. 

But we spend most of our time working for positions. Trying to see if one group can lord it over the other.When we are caught in the wrong or suspected, we have tried to argue that this happens to us because we are Africans, I refer now to a recent statement of the African Union regarding the International Criminal Court. Seriously? What will the teens say? Unable to stop and ask where it all goes wrong we grumble and sulk. We have have a wealth of leaders and words never lack. Here is what is reported of Wangari Maathai in 2009 speaking at a meeting of the African Development Bank in Tunis:

"She called on Africans to be critical of themselves as a means of making progress in the areas of natural resource management, sustainable development and poverty reduction. She blamed the continent’s perennial poverty on the mismanagement of the continent’s natural resources, adding that good governance was the missing piece in the continent’s development paradigm. She called for responsible and accountable leadership on the continent, underscoring that poverty could not be overcome across the continent if basic notions such as equity, justice and peace were not taken seriously." 

Nelson Mandela

We refuse to listen to our ancestors more often than our teenagers disobey us. But we all the time speak of the bad ways of the teens. We refuse to accept that we must acknowledge and leave our own prisons. Unchain ourselves where we take ourselves even longer than Mandela at Robben Island. Where we will belong for life in chains unless we learn: 

"But what most amazed me about him(Frank Lebentlele, Mandela's zoology teacher) was his marriage to a Xhosa girl from Umtata. Marriages between tribes were then extremely unusual. Until then,  I had never known anyone who had married outside his tribe. We had been taught that such unions were taboo. But seeing Frank and his wife began to undermine my parochialism and loosen the hold of the tribalism that still imprisoned me. I began to sense my identity as an African, not just a Thembu or even a Xhosa. But this was still a nascent feeling.
" Long Walk to Freedom. Nelson Mandela.

Back to Kenya

General Election time in Kenya we fly over a potholed country, those of us with the means. The rest of us walk for justice to be served. 

Many ride cars and buses, no doubt. The Kenyan railway could be more efficacious. But we were talking about elections. We vote. We kill. We killed in 2007. Displacement and killings go far back at election times only we did not do it so openly as it was in 2007/2008.  We do not always kill for votes but if words were bullets Facebook would be bullet riddled. The Election. Purple fingers. 

And then for a time we live in a cloud of disbelief. This is Kenya. We start election campaigns all over again, almost the day after the election. This is because we believe that with the right people the country can be steered forward. We hope in political leaders like many people in the world do. But do we scrutinise their qualities enough?

We do not spend too much time checking how we and they fit in the law. Examining how we are doing. Nowadays those who search such things are not so popular. They are spoiling the feast. MPs have been called Mpigs for the high salaries they take home but they keep claiming they need this money for people turn to them all day long with needs. Pigs were brought outside Parliament and blood poured there to drive this point home. But we are far from having a country of a political group that is not a class of those who have.  The media is already reporting that the next election is almost on..

KipKoech Tanui wrote in the Standard

"Now the point we are making is; however crude the timing is, the next succession battle has started.

This is typical of we Kenyans really, but the question we should be asking is if we are ready for the next divisive referendum under the same IEBC cast, and with TON (tyranny of numbers) intact? What about the cost? I would have told you about the other issue probably at play but it is too hot…and has to do with what will soon happen at The Hague.

The writer is the Managing Editor The Counties Weekly.

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000091256&story_title=someone-poking-uhuru-kenyatta-william-ruto-soft-belly&pageNo=3

What about certain values that we give as evidence of where we want to be? Values that say about us that we and our ancestors knew how to govern ourselves... such values? They are enshrined in the Constitution 2010.

Leadership and Integrity: 
Article 73....
....
(b) Objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, other improper motives or corrupt practices;
(c) Selfless service based solely on public interest, demonstrated by--
(i) Honesty in execution of public duties; and
(ii) the declaration of any personal interest that may conflict with public duties....

and so many other wonderful things. In the above alone can we start to show paths that lead to better management of diversity. 

Preceding this chapter is Chapter Five on land: This is an explosive topic regarding ownership of how much and by who. The work is carved out for Parliament. We are told that Parliament shall enact legislation "To prescribe minimum and maximum land holding acreages in respect to private land."


Unless we take this chapter in the Constitution of Kenya and forge it into deeds, we shall not achieve justice. Land matters will continue to tear us apart. They will be fired by a forced perception of ourselves as beneficiaries of this and that because we come from a specific ethnic group. 

While it is natural to belong to one, there is everything wrong in making it the first fact that has to be known about us and the key to opportunities. The failure to understand that we cannot be well off if the other is oppressed. 

Like the Sixth Commandment - for those of you who know it- Leadership and Integrity is the 6th Chapter of Kenya's new Constitution. Now if I may extrapolate, this Constitution was not given from above as Moses was given the tablet of the Law. We gave it to ourselves. We should not violate it so often. We threw out the first one - save some ribs- mutilated hundreds of times in forms of amendment to suit the powers that were. 

It was one written in Lancaster House, Britain. It was often called the independence constitution. Why, when we received independence, we also went up the mountain and raised a flag there. Mount Kenya.  But Kenyans opened it, read it, tried to live with it. The law courts run, lawyers made their money. Poor people suffered. I remember one example.

I will never forget a man in tatters who arrived in a land office having slept somewhere for days on the way to Nairobi to try and catch the thief who had taken his land. He did not know Nairobi well. He found a relative who lived in the far outskirts of the city. He walked again from that house to the city every day for months. Initially, he thought that just getting to be shown Sheria House, the House of Law was enough. 

When he found his way to a lawyer, he thought he had finally struck it right. The person behind the counter told him to run home for a few more papers. That was it.  He came and went for months. And now I was looking at his worn out face, shoes and clothes in a complaint office at Sheria House. This is just one of millions of cases of the unreachable law and justice and the case is much the same today. 

If we look at how we are treating Chapter Six on Integrity and many other aspects of this constitution, we can say we are just facing the book of the law, the mother or all laws - our Constitution.

It was in 1991 when almost "All with one accord" to quote the national anthem... "Let all with one accord/ in common bond united/ build this our nation together/ and the glory of Kenya..." when the people agreed to start the struggle for reforms, the overhaul of the old constitution in some cases. In fact we got a new document. The difference was that this time the people gave to themselves, their nation and generations to come on August 27th 2010. And a national anthem many are proud of was played and is played again and again.

"Seen as a dinosaur during the struggle for a new order,  the Independence Constitution, sagging even more countless mendments to suit power at different times was replaced. In being replaced it ceased to exist."

That was the 1963 Lancaster Constitution made in London with the Crown and a few Kenyans who were quite bold was gone.  Details can be found elsewhere. The dust settled to a new election which was moved from August 2012 according to the New Constitution to 4th March 2013 for reasons of unpreparedness under the new law. Elections and Constitution were at hand.

There was much to celebrate even when the spirit of the Constitution seemed challenged. The spirit of change was nor part of President Mwai Kibaki's style and a new constitution was foisted upon him by the times.  Commitment to human rights tears. The first time I read about Kenya pulling out of the Rome Statute, the idea was reported as this president's. Reform was not his way but the times swayed them in.

For indeed Kenya, a signatory to the Rome Statute, the basis of the International Criminal Court invited for the occasion of the celebration of the constitution an indictee, The President of Sudan for the last 25 years, Omar al Bashir born in 1944. He, an army brigadier, who went to power in a "bloodless" military coup in 1989. Some diplomats left the celebrations. Kenyans raised questions. In 2012, the President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, forwent an AU meeting in her country rather than have this president among her guests. I digress.

Great change had been written into Kenya. A small tip. The Constitution 2010, had taken away what Pres. Moi used to call "his secret weapon".  The Date.  The date of a new election was his to determine.  It is now boldly written into this Constitution that:

"A general election ... will be held on the second Tuesday in August every fifth year."

Fast forward to a nation that wants to be allowed to be what it is: 
At once a loveable place, a part of the world any human being would love to live in. A place where flourishing water has even been found under a suffering and dry part of the Northern country -called the Northern Frontier by the Brits- water enough to last us 70 years, a dream come true. http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Huge+water+reserve+discovered+in+Turkana/-/1107872/1988678/-/qqod1p/-/index.html Found in Kenya: Oil and many minerals. Resources we are full of.

It does not matter what some say, but this find does remind me of Wangari Maathai (R.I.P, (25.9.2011) the tireless environmental activist,  and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2004), not only because she planted trees and urged all to do so but also because she believed in this planets capacity to regenerate itself with a little help from us. She was committed at heart and had a vision of the fact that small little things matter in all departments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

And this is a resource in itself. It would do us much good to reflect that we can all take something positive to fill the rifts between people in our country. To move more towards those who are always the majority at the baseline. Those who are marginalised under a constitution that promises so much to them. Fearlessness of Devolution, something the current government elected on 2013 is trying to fight. 

Kenya can be led to ruins or taken so high that people will be searching for the alps in its deserts and diversified landscape for once it was called -The Switzerland of Afrika. It is political agendas that are holding Kenya back. These become a barrier when power must remain within certain circles. Ethnic enclaves determine who has power. Things other than merit are used to get to the top. And with this kind of game, breathing and working in between elections is hard.

Kenyans are held in a spell of politicking from one election to the next. So that one wonders who is working tirelessly just on the job without thinking about the next election. We have many people in office and they are paid well. 

This is a nation that needs integrity for healing. We are so divided along political lines and ethnicity is in there alive and kicking. This is a situation that only suits those who need numbers to retain power. Beyond the vote, other aspects of democracy: The Bill of rights and other freedoms can be toyed with. 

Currently, the President and his Deputy are standing trial at the International Criminal Court, ICC, for crimes against humanity. Crimes which some have tried to argue should not be politicised. That is to close eyes to the origin of the problem. The origin of this kind of species was a power struggle at election time. To say that Kenyans should try and not be political about the case is like saying you have just shaken hands with Snow Black and Seven Angels on a village path.  We wait to see what we learn then about leadership and integrity. Kenya's Parliament and Senate have passed a law to withdraw from the Rome Statute. 
Maybe we should climb Mount Kenya again and plant the tree of justice, and acknowledge that the mountain faces the people?

Prayers for the accused, no prayers for the victims...Mutula Kilonzo had advised Uhuru Kenyatta and William S Ruto not to run for office but now we have them in office

"If you become president and you are accused of crimes against humanity...." Said the late Mutula Kilonzo (R.I.P. 27.4.2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FytE7hKao

And he did fear for his life...

 * An update 12 January 2015 

http://goo.gl/rrTBeQ

The General Election in Kenya took place on March 4th 2013. But Kenya is still at the election moment in July 2013. One only has to read Social Media or hear people say: "Nothing is really happening since we have the ICC thing to get on with. But is that where Kenyans should be? There has been a hue and cry on salaries of MPs but is that where the country is really pinched? The politicians push their way around about money.

Three months after the election, the 100 significant days to judge any new team, and there is a pile of things that are not moving as fast as some expected. 

What should take priority? Have we ever taken teachers and schools seriously? In the last elections a promise for a free laptop for every young student was made. Considerations about electronic dumping on Kenya were disregarded. As the world moves to smaller gadgets, there are big size laptops to get rid of. 

Some schools do not have a roof over them. There are still pupils learning under trees. There are pupils who already have laptops because they come from middle class families. There were many other things not considered. How do politicians see the needs of Kenyan people? Why did we take so long to resettle 500 000 Internally Displaced People  http://www.knchr-idp.org/since the violence of 2007 which we agreed to sort out at the Hague's ICC?

Why are those who lost life and limb so forgotten now in 2013 when those accused seem to want to shun the process rather than follow up their election pledge that they would cooperate with the ICc and rule Kenya on Skype? For indeed that is what Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto who are among those accused told the Kenyans as they campaigned. 

I am reminded of he days President Moi would give chewing gum to students whose schools he passed by. There are a number of things to be said about chewing gum. Perhaps not it is that chewing gum generation should be asking more questions, but maybe they are still chewing gum. Political actions have impact for years over people. Small things, big things, decisions made unwisely. Some election promises carried us away easily like chewing gum? Where shall we all deposit it when the sugar is done?

Kenyan teachers are on strike again. Students are at home, anxious. It is laptops that have now become like lollipops or is it the teachers' salaries?  is a crucial time of the year for schools in Kenya. It is not holiday time. It is not summer, if anything it is close to the hard work days of the coldest season. Leaders are busy addressing Obama who is not visiting Kenya on his words of acceptance of gay people. Moralising him here and there and reminding him of his traditions. Of course we have no such people here, we are Africans. Gay did you say? Traditionally you know, here we do not have a word for such people. Even in Uganda they do not exist... and I mean it. Africa is clean. And praying we go Lord our souls!

On many things we are still taking sides depending not on the objective picture but on what we think should make our political divide happy.  We are hopelessly divided. We are ethnically inimical. At least the people who are talking on the streets and on social media are revealing much hopelessness. But even these thoughts of the blogger and the desperation of others would be boxed in as reactions of not wanting to support someone politically and many Kenyans will say to them "Move on!" These have become the two most common words after the contested election as Raila Odinga went to court on the results and the Supreme Court of Kenya ruled that Kenyatta had won the election and he was sworn in as President whilst Ruto became the Deputy President. 

http://goo.gl/nFHEjV

But Kenya cannot so easily "Move on". We have to develop a deeper memory and today am taking it back to the Minister of Justice then, Mutula Kilonzo who ended up dead on 27th of April in mysterious circumstances. We have not yet heard of the result of the post mortem and we wait for it as we review his thoughts on the ICC when he was minister of justice. For he had spoken. We shall accept what the experts and family agree was the cause of his death but we refuse to forget his words. 

Mutula sat with four of us often at Crossfire with a radio broadcaster whom I hear some people tried to blame for his death. We told each other truths. I have a duty to remember him. And to thank him for having asked why there are so many prayers for the accused and not for the victims as you hear in that video above. For indeed if this woman in the photo below is a survivor... what should we be talking about? How will healing come? Why does our sleep come so easily? All I hear is ICC this and that. Prayer here and there. And a house worth refurbishing with 100 million is seen in the papers http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899432/-/w2o47nz/-/index.html(for William Ruto)  and another to be built with over 700 millon shillings for Kibaki http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Intrigues-over-Sh700m-Kibaki-office-deepen/-/1056/1899390/-/ylvp2v/-/index.html.. being built before the ICC court case is through. One being built for an ex president and the other for the other for the Deputy President, someone whom the court has ordered to pay to an IDP some 5 million for his grabbed land, stolen by the same politician? No. Our priorities are rotten. It took us forever to settle the IDPs and in the end just covered up some of them before the elections. They did not receive justice and it seems all victims are headed to the same.

 Mutula was right. The advice remains that it would have been much better for Kenya not to have people who have to clear their names before the courts elected for leadership. But they were and if you keep on saying it like me, you are told,"Move on!" But this is nothing. For there are those who were moved on!

Extra-judicial killings

I remember scared people especially mothers worried about their sons. I remember them wondering if they will be killed either by police or by a militia gang that was said to be killing people and organising for change. And in the middle of all this, those who understood why this was happening were seen as enemies. 

I recall a woman coming to us on a street in Nairobi, and she asked me if as human rights activists we defended people who had joined Mungiki from being killed. I told her we defended humans but not evil deeds. She said that was good but that we should agree that some people be killed if they are guilty. I told her there was a court of justice for that and it followed due process. And I knew many of those young men would never see a process such as that. Many were eliminated by police and that means many innocent people too were killed. 

Still I froze when I read in the Africa Report that "Muite estimates that death squads set up by hte Kenya police killed as many as 10 000 Mungiki members between 2005 and 2009."  Paul Muite is a lawyer who has represented the Mungiki or some said to be, for many years. So where is integrity a voice asks if we do not hear about such figures from those who are in power but only denial. Those who are moving on. Dying because as Muite quoted in the Africa Report June 2013 puts it. A reality we all know. It is not a secret. He says.

"Mungiki is not simply a law and order issue. It is a socio-economic issue. Everybody knows that Kenya is one of the most unequal countries of the world. I have never supported Mungiki's excesses but let us not just treat symptoms, let us appreciate the disease."  And I hear a voice ask too '... and where were you when so many people were dying?

We were there, I was there and I spoke out but it was never enough. At that time many said do not bring such politics to the churches or to us. Do your protest thing such as wearing those sacks. Mourn alone. Some voices continued but were castigated often as those hungry human rights activists who shame everyone.

 Oscar and GPO Oulo were assassinated for giving legal support to victims on March 5th 2009. Their assassination was meant to send fear to human rights defenders and it did. Many of us had experienced police brutality. Now it is no better in Kenya 2013. There is fear to speak out. To oppose. Civil society as known in Kenya before is a pale shadow. Yes, there was a protest of pigs and blood outside Parliament by Occupy Parliament led by Boniface Mwangi but the focus was on MPs salaries. Fear leads many not to focus on the issues of the day and stand together as a national voice.

"Activists say this climate of fear among civil society has increased sharply since the new government took over in April," writes Tom Maliti in The Africa Report. Witnesses to the ICC have been intimidated. The Prosecutor says many were bribed. Mutula Kilonzo was so right. It is not practical to expect people to board the same plane home or bus after testifying against their won presidents. Was the election of the two out of fear too? Intimidation of witnesses is done by people who are unknown. It was written about before.

William Ruto at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, Nakuru Maili kumi

The Catholic Church cardinal Njue spoke against Obama and homosequals. Where is his word on many other issues facing Kenya today? A priest told me how ethnically and politically divided the Catholic bishops of Kenya are and were a few years ago. Have they healed these rifts? Why are we looking so far to Americas policies? If  there are homosexuals in Kenya and I hear they are everywhere, are we supposed to be checking what they do in bed and denying them their economic rights? Who is answering about what we do in our beds?

And we are listening and spending time in churches as Christians with all this blaming Obama for laws in his country and the ICC for looking for hunting down Africans for its corridors. We are off to the African Union to beg them to stand against ICC and before that it was to Gaddafi to ask for help Kenya and get the rest of the  AU to support the accused without asking where are the victims.  

This is about gross injustice. It is about us not facing ourselves. Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto must allow due process. So many words do not make sense. Replay Mutula Kilonzo. 

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Obamas-snub-within-his-rights-says-Ruto/-/1064/1899862/-/tfyi55/-/index.html

William Ruto:

No one should have any worry about Kenya’s stand as a God-fearing nation. President Obama is a powerful man but we trust in God as it is written in the Bible that cursed is the man who puts trust in another man." William Ruto, Deputy President Kenya, Daily Nation July 1 2013

Voice and Vote:

Kenyans are worried about you. About the government today and how it came to power. Many things are written in the Bible about integrity, about justice. About lawyers, about people who are killed about being honest and now... 

William Ruto:

“America has made tremendous contribution to Kenya’s well-being and we are very grateful and as a government we are ready to receive any help from America that will improve the lives of our people,” he said at St Gabriel’s Catholic Church at Maili Kumi in Bahati constituency.

Voice and Vote

We must help ourselves first before we can stretch out our hands for help. We can improve our own lives by facing the truth...

Kenya’s sovereignty

Mr Ruto urged foreign governments to respect Kenya’s sovereignty. “But for these other things we hear it is none of our business as it goes against our customs and traditions,” he said, referring to President Obama’s call for African countries to respect the rights of gay people.

Voice and Vote

You can say that to Obama but Vote and Voice has this to say. We do not quote our customs and traditions here. Customs and traditions we broke many times. In 2007 during PEV  people were killed. Women were raped and they got HIV/Aids and no justice. Children were thrown back into a burning church after trying to climb out through windows.

 We will always stand for people. Like those ones who died in Post Poll Violence (2007-2008) and all who have disappeared without caring what they think or do. We shall not play Nazis who distinguished now the Jews, now the homosexuals and sent them to gas chambers. 

Even in USA and Europe there are still people wondering if gay people are people. Just like people asked the Pope in the Catholic church if it was alright to baptise people with a dark skin. Did they have souls? And on this not all have moved on either! We read history and the Bible too. 

There are certain limits we do not surpass here. We are not the Creator. We feed all our children equal food. We shall respect all people. Gay people are people because they are people. 
*Update was on the news of 12.01.2015 and on IDPS.

Diversity challenges Kenya's social fabric: Kenyans flood Social Media with negative ethnicity whilst praying all day!

 

Kenyatta presented as prince from above
how voters create dictators 

The people pray. They elevate their princes but put down their women. They sing praises to one but stink on other ethnic groups. Is democracy party to non-reason?

Justice Albie Sachs gave a keynote address in the 39th ALA Congress, 2013 which I was happy and lucky to attend in Charleston South Carolina. This is an important Association of African Literature meeting and many scholars and writers make all the necessary efforts to attend it. including saving all year round. 

In his wonderful keynote address Jugde Albie as he said he likes people calling him, talked about his life and commitment to justice. He talked about soft vengeance a topic of reconciliation that goes beyond legal fixes and deep into the heart. 

It was marvellous to hear him. Many people from different cultures and backgrounds were moved to hear him. He stirs deep into the conscience for those who are wronged and how to overcome the hurt with compassion as well as make the person gently see what they did to another as he did to the man who planted a bomb that left this judge with one hand.

And I keep asking myself, where is this softness in my country Kenya when it comes to our relations as people of diverse ethnicity? Why is religion seeming to fail to introduce this? It is a question I asked Judge Albie. He has worked in Kenya in recent months. He is from South Africa. 

He has worked in Kenya with cleaning up the judiciary. Somehow after his keynote address the first question asked pointed to African democracies and the problems face them now, seeing gains made recently being lost. The clawing  back of these successes is due to political greed. 

I had my own question which was not about negative ethnicity but about religion and the role it can play when manipulated to blind a people rather than enlighten them to their own liberation. For we are a people in need of creating god to worship and to take a little more opium of the unsettled if not the poor. We are happy to create our idols and are already cultivating dictators because we suffer if we do not depend on our own esteem and that of our neighbour. Look where we can take an elected person pictorially and know that he is being called the chosen Prince.

Kenyans from one region have already canonised their president!

About democracy in Africa Judge Albie was very optimistic. He credited the people of Kenya for instance in sticking together even when some people wanted to cause a hatred along religious lines and for this he mentioned Islam and Christianity. The people reject this division in practice. He said. He explained more things and told of how Kenya has made great progress in the direction of having a new constitution since 2010. 

He remarked that South Africans thought they took long to usher in a new constitution in six years but that he was amazed at Kenya's close to 20 years of struggling to do the same and finally getting there. The whole exercise was for reform purposes. But on March 4th Kenya became the first country to vote in indictees of the ICC to the highest offices in the country.

Judge Albie answered the question on religion in a very fine manner. He emphasised the love and respect we ought to have for each others' consciences. I guess that is the way of a great judge and of a magnanimous mind. 

He said we should try out best not to fight over the god issues for then it gets very complex. We did not go into the tribal matters for thus they have to be named having become so naked in Kenya. And these relate too to religion in history for missionaries of some churches only preached as directed by government only to certain peoples. 

Kenya was born on a very racially divided bed. Ethnicity was stoked by the British too and  the 1884 conference did partition Africa against the grain of the population so that you have Bantu people and the Nilotes and others spread in different nations, but this is not the entire problem. Actually diversity should be a plus when managed, but this is not what religious people nor politicians do with it. 

However, having noted that there was a time in the 70s and 80s when it was not our immediate problem one worries why when it has gone up it has also meant the increase of insecurity. And yes, the fights are not along religious lines but then why does religion fail to glue such prayerful people. For indeed Judge Albie said of all a nations he knew well, Kenya was the most prayerful. What do prayers mean in a country where practically everyone is lined up with their own? How deep is the soul? But to that later.

Judge Albie is happy with the clean up of the Kenyan Judiciary and spoke about how the people of Kenya are delighted with the Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga and have much hope in him. This has been largely true. Even though some people have not liked the CJ. 

Maybe some people who did not like him before the 30th of March when he delivered a ruling that held that Kenya's election of 2013 was free and fair and that the two elect were elected fairly now love him more. Maybe some who loved him feel lost. He was their beacon of hope. And they felt that the election was stolen from the reformer and given to the status quo. Perhaps others have not changed knowing that with six judges in the Bench and the win having to come from 4:2, the thing is not a one man game. The judgement was unanimous. 

Some people point out that Constitution 2010 gives too short a time for the filing and the study of a proper case of this nature. Others say 7 judges would be best. In any case, the details of the judgement were not read and after the country had waited in heightening and then absolute anxiety for a week, the judgment came in three minutes.

There was rejoicing for those who were happy with their team. The others went into shock. Some violence occurred at night. Most places in Kenya are under heavy security detail for fear of violence. It is not new to us we had it in 2007 and in other elections. Some people responded to this situation by immediately saying that they would never vote again. One tweet showed someone burning up their identity card. There is still a sense of disbelief for those who expected a different ruling but Supreme Court locuta causa finita. Finita? Well, this remains to be seen.

Everything is heavy, but I have children! 

We had foreseen the filing of a petition no matter which side won because the margin was going to be narrow. However in the final results there were glaring mistakes. 

The international observers had spoken before but who could have foreseen the sharing of an IPS of the Independent Electoral and Borders Commission, IEBC, with Kencall a private company in which one of the contesters apparently has shares? 

Was everything put into place to monitor this election? And the list of complaints and evidence long. The court case was televised live and could be watched from any part of the world by Kenyans and they did so even though they could not vote from the diaspora again because the IEBC said that was beyond its scope.

If facebook could bleed

There would have been rivers that would have reached all links in the world. Kenyans vented their anger on Social Media using the tool much less for what people in Cairo used it for in the Arab Spring. 

They turned against one another identifying their man of their ethnic group as some untouchable and spewing vitriol on the other camp. There were two camps and two main ethnic groups had themselves confounded on Social Media because each had a main man. The Kikuyu and the Luo. Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga respectively.

 Social media was laden with hate speech. It bore messages on the elections but also with very intrusive and base language. Reactions, hopes and dilemmas were everywhere. What was certain is you could tell who is going to praise which of the two strong candidates just by knowing from which region a name can be placed. Things got vicious and almost war-like on facebook. But some people said just as well the war was on facebook and not with crude weapons on the ground. But these forgot that on Social Media it is a certain class that sits to it all day. On the ground indeed some crude weapons did surface in Malindi and most tourists caught an early flight.

Kenyans were deeply angered by some of their own, as identified by names and hear let's call a spade a spade and say that Kikuyus who openly supported Raila Odinga had it quite rough. There is one who has posted death threats as he was seen to be a traitor. All this is a repeat of 2007. Why such deep hatred and why such forced strong love for a community? And yet these two candidates did get a few votes from enemy territory, but mainly from their own in the local diasporas there.

It has been gradual but very real now. Politics has helped gate Kenyans within their ethnic territories and this with fear. I think that even the voting pattern was influenced by the same. Look at the people who voted in Central part of the country and who teamed up mainly with the Rift Valley. The Kalenjin and the Kikuyu fought the worst in the 2007 violence. Now they have voted together. It is clear that they want to protect those whom they see to have protected them in 2007. But how was that protection? Was it legal?

 It is also clear then that they were voting so as to shield themselves from the woes of insecurity which they have been facing daily for instance in the face of Mungiki, a militia group mainly to be found in Central Province. They have felt that the elect two, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto will know how to protect them as they did in 2007. That they will also know how to keep those youth who belong to these militia group down. It is protect me, I protect you from the ICC and we live happily ever after. Of course this team also had the backing of the incumbent and the State machinery. Have we voted to shield impunity?

If Raila Odinga garnered less votes, if that is proven, fine. But there is doubt and this problem is not going away. The country's Intelligence had better concentrate on what can give Kenya justice instead of hounding down bloggers. Raila has told the BBC that he has only accepted to honour his earlier word but that he is looking for away out. His supporters and indeed many people in the country are feeling his humiliation. Why? Well he was thoroughly demonised, his main pillars attacked and rendered almost helpless when it came to the race to State House. There is more intrigue about the candidate to win having to win and only win.

I have heard for myself what kind of names people call Raila Odinga in some places and so ugly was the situation that it was the only time in my life that I felt like never visiting a certain village even though I informed them that they were wrong. There is everything wrong with building such huge enmity. I have heard his name dragged into a Muslim pact and this by Christians. I have been given a letter out of a drawer by a priest of the Catholic church to see how compromised Raila Odinga is with the Muslims. I saw the letter and immediately almost burst out laughing and worried for our priest. The letter was pure propaganda and that was in 2008. But had done enough damage already. I have heard that he caused all the evils that happened in an election year.  So what about all this?

My main concern is for Kenya. No matter how much we pray, behind the scenes we are full of intrigues. Religious differences are exploited for power. Religion is used as a power base. I saw this in Rwanda. Much compromising. Ethnicity is ruling at all levels and again we saw this in Rwanda 1994. When all these things mix with politics to fade out reason, in a world full of wonderful diversity, suddenly, the stars fade. 

But just maybe we swing and swing until the Constitution begins to flower and we get our balance! But on the other hand, where power is involved, poetic thinking can fail. It is something to be afraid of that two persons, that two strong communities see as their power, have this chasm of hating communities between them.