August 27th: A New Day for Kenya

Today is a big day in Kenya. It’s been declared a national holiday and people are even comparing this to a second independence day. Dignitaries from all over East Africa are expected and Kofi Annan as well as other prominent international leaders will also join in the celebration. There are rumors floating about that President Obama might show up but that seems a little far-fetched given the current state of the US economy. No matter who shows up, Kenyans are very excited to celebrate the “promulgation” of the new constitution. Promulgation is not a word we really use all that often but here they mean that it’s the acceptance and start of the new constitution.

I’m going to try my best to explain what happened though of course I’m probably leaving a lot out and misinterpreting some things since it’s pretty hard to explain 60 years of history when you’ve been in a place for 2 weeks. Sorry this blog post is a little dry but we have been living with the news about the promulgation since we arrived so we wanted to share it. Most of this description is from conversations with mzee Mungai over the last few weeks.

The original constitution was designed by a very small group of political leaders in the 1960s. It wasn’t even drafted on Kenyan soil but was written in Lancaster, UK. It was the first attempt to govern Kenya after the British left and as the British flag lowered at midnight on December 12th, 1963, celebrations went off around the country and the Kenyan flag was raised. Jomo Kenyatta was elected president and held this title until his death in 1978. After Kenyatta passed, his VP Daniel arap Moi was elected (using the term elected loosely) and held the presidency until he was constitutionally barred from running again in 2002.

It soon became clear during Moi’s presidency that this particular constitution gave a lot of power to the executive branch and lacked checks and balances. Freedom of speech, for example, was not a constitutional right until 1992. When Moi was “re-elected” in 1988, he didn’t allow the casting of ballots but instead made people stand in lines to demonstrate their vote. Clearly this doesn’t lead to a lot of impartial vote casting and people started to consider the idea of constitutional reform.

As previously mentioned, Kenya is made up of many tribes and with power so concentrated in the executive branch, lack of free speech, and a tribal history, it was quite easy for disparity to spread throughout the country. The President and his ministers were free to squash criticism and could easily allocate money to their own regions or tribes. So while one region might have excellent schools and services, another region may receive no funding for years.

After the 1988 elections and especially after 1992, people began fighting for a more equitable system with checks and balances and a more even distribution of funds and representation from regions and tribes. Still though there was significant opposition to a new constitution from various factions who benefitted from the system.

After Moi’s presidency, the current President Mwai Kibaki was elected and with the help of a ruling coalition promised reforms. These reforms have been slowed by the staggering population growth in Kenya (more than 7%) and the stagnant growth of the economy (0-2% depending on the year). Obviously the massive difference between population growth and economic growth creates a math problem that does not even allow for maintenance of services and makes expansion of services nearly impossible. The frustrations over the inability to achieve reform culminated in post-election violence in 2007 as protestors divided along tribal lines to agitate for changes that benefitted their groups and claim victory for their presidential candidate. Over 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 people were displaced.

This bloodshed marked a turning point though for Kenyans, the majority of whom were horrified that their neighbors were being targeted by tribe or political views. Kenyans are very proud of their peaceful history of self-rule and Kenya is seen as one of the most stable countries in East Africa so the violence was shocking to the average Kenyan. This paved the way for the new constitution.

Among other things, the constitution promises proportional representation from each county (like our electoral districts), guaranteed funds allocated to each district for services, gives significant power to local governments, and includes a bill of rights for Kenyans. It was widely praised internationally and despite fears, peaceably passed via referendum on August 4th, 2010. Mzee Mungai has the dyed fingernail to prove that he voted.

Since the constitution was a compromise, there are still some parts that are “less than ideal” (at least by Western standards) but overall most Kenyans are very happy that it passed. One such element is that the constitution still allows the Kadhi courts (courts for Muslim believers to deal with Marriage, Divorce, and Inheritance) and exempts a portion of the bill of rights for people professing the Muslim faith. Protestors argue that this basically allows one religion to live outside the constitution but supporters argued that the constitution benefitted most Kenyans and should be passed. Since that part only applies “to people professing the Muslim faith”, one could argue that it’s easy to work around but in practice it will clearly be very difficult in some communities. Despite this issue, all the Kenyans that we’ve spoken to are excited about the reforms and the new constitution and acknowledge that compromise with the Muslim community was required to pass the new constitution.

A huge celebration is planned in Nairobi and the army has been practicing for days to be reviewed by the President at the ceremony (sort of like our Inauguration). People here are proud that the constitution passed peacefully and are hopeful for new reforms.

Witnessing this part of Kenyan history has made us very grateful for all we enjoy and take for granted as Americans. It makes you feel ashamed that so many people in our country don’t even bother to vote, let alone pay attention to policy debates beyond snippets on the nightly news. After being here for 2 weeks, you can’t help but feel hopeful for our Kenyan friends and to hope that the promised reforms come through for them.

We have the place to ourselves this weekend since Lucy and Mungai are celebrating with their families. Lucy seemed concerned about leaving us but I assured her that I have a house back in the US and I somehow manage to keep M fed without help back in the US so I'd be fine for the weekend (I said it politely but her concern was fairly amusing). We are going to watch the promulgation ceremony on TV and then head into Mombasa for Saturday to see some of the historic sites.