The year ahead will be an extremely important one for us. There may be elections. Before that, there will be choices made about political parties and individuals. We will have to continue with the implementation of the Constitution and the consolidation of its values in government. All this will be in the face of those who, openly or covertly, are still opposing the constitution and Kenya’s chosen future. They still seek to move Kenya back to the dark past and their own favoured position in it.
In moving the country forward next year we have to focus on what its aims are, and reinforce the philosophy of our country. We need to answer the question that our five million schoolchildren mutely ask daily: What are the things we must do that people will say are the right things to do, and what the wrong things?
The answers are before us. We already decided them in 2010, after nearly forty years of intense debate and conflict. Our Constitution recognizes them as “the aspirations of all Kenyans for a government based on the essential values of human rights, equality, freedom, democracy, social justice and the rule of law.” (Preamble). These are important and empowering aims. The principal pillars in the achievement of these aims are: social justice, devolution, equitable revenue sharing, integrity of Kenya’s officials and officers, accountability, the judiciary and the Bill of Rights.
Even more important is the change in how we think now as a people, as opposed to the past. We are a liberated people. We have realized also that the Second Liberation did not come from the so-called ‘leaders,’ but from ourselves. As a famous freedom fighter said, “I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.” The truth of this can be seen in the fact that each Kenyan entered the struggle for liberty by herself and himself, as they came to reject oppression and injustice, and to believe in freedom and its defence. I am not sure that our ‘leaders’ have understood this change.
Kenyans are ready now to hold ‘leaders’, officials and officers to the values and requirements of the Constitution. For the Constitution is not just about the mechanics of government. It is also a statement of the values demanded by the people. These values are demanded from all ‘leaders, officials and officers, both as qualifications before they stand, and as performance standards and aims once they are in office.
To our school children, we will answer, “What is right in Kenya and what Kenya aspires to is a society and a government based on the essential values of human rights, equality, freedom, democracy, social justice and the rule of law.” We can best practice these when we have knowledge of our diversity and an understanding of our past, when we seek and take pleasure in tolerance for that diversity and when we remember our history. For without these, we shall again become vulnerable to those who seek the wealth of Kenya for themselves and who use intolerance to gain and keep power. Our past fifty years teaches us all this. We must teach this to our schoolchildren in these better times so the bad times never return.
Our answers to our children will be our questions to those standing for elections. For we pose the same issues to them. We ask them: Do you believe in what we have told the school children? Do you believe in social justice and the Bill of Rights? Are you against injustice and oppression? Show us your record. Are you for tolerance and fair sharing of revenue, power and decision-making? Show us your record. Will you lead the country to the aims and aspirations set out in the Constitution? Or are you buying office to protect your personal interests and wealth, and even increase them?
To them we also say, the people are determined that injustice and oppression will not ever return. The people are determined that the Constitution will be enforced and that its objectives will prevail. Increasingly, there are more and more officers in the administration, in the police, in the prisons and in every part of the State who are also so determined. So this year, we will tell these ‘leaders’, “We are not here to ‘follow’ you. The question is, ‘Are you ready to follow the people?’ Depending on your answer, we will decide how to choose and eventually, how to vote.”
The writer is a lawyer.
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