Amendments -who's fooling whom?

Written by Ken Mijungu
Monday, 09 August 2010 12:11

With the passages of the new Constitution, some of those who pushed for the new laws appear to have shifted goal posts. They seem to be dismissing calls for amendments tot the document, despite the fact that a section of Kenyans voted for the new Constitution in the hope that leaders will make good their promise to amend the proposed new laws.

The question remains, as ever in Kenyan politics, whether or not there was ever any true commitment to the promises made.

The road to the new Constitution was rocked by anxiety and doubt on all sides, as proponents and opponents of the new Constitution crisscrossed the country attempting to pull numbers onto their side. But the subject of amendment was a constant across the board then, just as it remains one now. While neither side wanted the proposed Constitution subjected to nit-picky amendments before it was presented to the people to decide, at the end of the day, Kenyans are now concerned that there might not be any made after the fact -the 2.5 million dissenters to the new Constitution in particular.

The clergy and politicians who were in the front line of dissenters are clamoring for amendments already, before the President has even had the chance to promulgate the new Constitution. Perhaps this is the sensible reason that their agitation is not spreading, as yet.

What is clear is that the new Constitution, the ultimate representative for democracy, has its defined protocol for amendment, and cannot be swayed or persuaded.