THOUSANDS OF Kenyans are to gather in Nairobi today when their country formally adopts a new constitution, hailed by many as the most significant political reform since independence in 1963.
The ceremony will see Mwai Kibaki, the president, sworn in under the new dispensation, along with Raila Odinga, the prime minister, and every other government office-holder.
Less than three years ago, Mr Kibaki’s bitterly disputed victory over Mr Odinga in a botched election precipitated an orgy of violence that almost sent Kenya into civil war. Some 1,300 people died, hundreds of thousands were left homeless and Kenya’s international reputation was reduced to tatters. A peace accord brokered by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general, led to the creation of a coalition government led by Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga.
This was accompanied by promises of political reform – and the new constitution represents, on paper at least, the most important change. It promises radically to re-orient Kenyan politics, reducing the power of the president and devolving authority away from the central government to 47 semi-autonomous counties. The aim is to break the politics of patronage, under which the government distributed resources in a highly politicised way, favouring ethnic groups seen as allies and punishing those deemed to be opponents.
“For a majority of Kenyans, devolution is like the second independence,” said Duncan Okello, regional director of the Society for International Development. “It represents the promise of the politics of empowerment both politically and financially.” A sense of expectation has swept through the country. In Nairobi, council workers in luminous jackets are repainting the streets for the celebrations.
However great the desire for change among Kenyans, it is tempered by memories of betrayal. In December 2002, Mr Kibaki became president after winning an election that ended almost a quarter of a century of autocratic rule by Daniel arap Moi.
But Mr Kibaki soon fell into the old Moi pattern, ignoring the corruption of those in his inner circle, perpetuating the culture of ethnic favouritism and sowing the seeds of the violence that would convulse Kenya five years later. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010)