SABA SABA: 18 YEARS AFTER KENYANS HAVE LITTLE TO CELEBRATE.

On 7th July 1990 Kenyans responded to a call made by politicians Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia and went to Kamukunji to press for constitutional, political-legal, social and economic reforms. Their rallying point was the demand for Kenya’s return to political pluralism, transparency and political accountability in the management of public affairs after decades of oppression and bad governance by the then intransigent KANU regime which had emasculated the civil and political rights of the ordinary people, denied press freedoms and failed to embrace social and economic reforms to cushion the majority poor from the effects of the World Bank and IMF driven Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). More than 20 (twenty) people died in the process and a few days later Matiba, Rubia, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and their lawyers John Khaminwa, Mohammed Ibrahim and Gitobu Imanyara were detained.

Although the last 18 years have witnessed key political milestones in our country, the ideals which Kenyans struggled and died for in 1990 are still a mirage. Kenya returned to political pluralism in December 1991 following the repeal of section 2A of the constitution. Multi-party elections were subsequently held in December 1992 and President Daniel Arap Moi and KANU triumphed against a fractious opposition. The same fete was repeated in 1997 but the opposition managed to secure an almost equal number Parliamentary seats with KANU at the backdrop of minimum constitutional and electoral law reforms enacted through the IPPG initiative. The opposition did not manage to force a paradigm shift in the management of public affairs since they remained divided and were almost always easily outmanoeuvred by Moi and KANU. By 2002 the opposition had a learnt their lesson. A united opposition christened the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) comprising of the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) then led by President Mwai Kibaki and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) then led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga easily routed out and trounced KANU and Moi’s anointed heir Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta at the polls. NARC was elected on the platform of reform and Kenyans had high hopes that the coalition was the final catalyst for the social, political and economic reforms they had sought since 1990.

Apart from expanded political space and press freedoms, Kenyans have nothing to celebrate about Saba Saba. A serious attempt to entrench constitutional and legal reforms in 2005 became a cropper owing to political disagreements. Our statute books are rife with countless laws that confer state beauracrats with excessive administrative power. These beauracrats are no accountable to the people and often act at the behest of the whimsical interests of their appointing authority, cartels of financial racketeers and wielders of political influence. Bad archaic laws have created a beauracratic aristocracy which has grossly enriched itself at the expense of the majority poor. It is these beauracrats who commit innumerable sins of omission and commission and cause incredible suffering to ordinary citizens. As a result Kenya has an anachronistic political system in which the real power of the state lies in the beauracracy rather than in the elected representatives of the people. It is not uncommon to hear Cabinet Ministers lament that the government has failed to protect or help their constituents! The recent sale of the Grand Regency in contravention of the Public Procurement and Disposal and the Privatization Acts is a good example of beauracratic excesses.

Kenyans now live under the siege of common and organised crime. High levels of unemployment, social inequality and inter-generational inequity have seen the emergence of vicious militant groups such as the Mungiki, Sungu Sungu, Taliban and more recently the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SLDF). Food security remains a pipe dream and just recently the media showed people in some parts of Kenya eating rats to survive. The judicial process and the criminal justice system are still highly steeped in archaic procedural practices which hurt and deny the poor access to justice. Quality health and education remain the preserve of the rich who can afford the fees charged by private institutions. The hastily implemented free Universal Primary Education (UPE) does not guarantee quality education for the children of the poor since it lacks appropriate ancillary structures. The newly implemented free Universal Secondary Education is likely to meet the same fate.

The culture of impunity continues to thrive. The rich and political elite still ride roughshod over the poor. Millions of Kenyans cannot afford decent housing or access cleaning drinking water whilst our leaders use colloquial language to oppose the taxation of their hefty incomes and allowances. Many Kenyans have and continue to die in the name of politically instigated ethnic clashes since 1991 and the Attorney General, Amos Wako is yet to put to account any single notable politician. Land, a basic factor of production which is at the core of these communal clashes remains an emotive issue simply because it is not easily and readily available to ordinary people. It has been reduced into a market commodity by an exploitative small minority that hoards it for commercial speculation rather than production for the common good of the people. The collapse of two stockbrokerages with millions of funds belonging to thousands of small-time investors at the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the massive pilfering of funds from poor people through fraudulent pyramid schemes are repulsive crimes against Kenyans. That the perpetrators of these scams are likely to go Scot free and continue to lavish in ill-gotten wealth is a clear demonstration of unbridled impunity in Kenya.

Without genuine constitutional and legal reforms, Kenyans will not get a political structure that produces transformational and compassionate leadership which does not seek power for the sake of power or for personal aggrandisement and the perpetuation of elitist minority interests. Only such leadership can formulate policies to create a system that promotes inter-generational equity and ensures equality and justice across the social strata. Then and only then will Kenyans have achieved the true vision of saba saba!