Despite Kenya having had some of the most progressive and promising Constitutions globally, since Independence, ordinary Kenyans are yet to benefit from them because of the selfish acts of politicians.
The Katiba Institute director Yash Pal Ghai said the mutilation of the country’s supreme law started immediately after Independence when the then Prime Minister, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, abolished the Constitution that was left by the colonialists.
“The Constitution was an instrument that responded to the needs of different communities. At the time, there were many different communities, tribes, and races,” Ghai said.
“It was a document that was quite lengthy and dealt with a quite number of issues that you would expect in a Constitution. It was very strong on the protection of minorities. There were two chambers of Parliament.”
Kenyatta abolished the Constitution within a year and introduced a new Constitution that gave him immense powers over all the other arms of government.
This, he explained, birthed authoritarianism that was later adopted and perpetuated by successive regimes and crop of politicians.
Since then, Ghai said, politicians have suppressed Kenyans, watered down good and promising drafts and frustrated efforts to have the country have a Constitution that guarantees equality, equity, and human rights.
“Over the years, the Constitution has become merely an instrument for harassing opponents. Today’s quarrels among our politicians are seldom about policies, they are about money and ethnicity,” he said.
The current Constitution though praised as one of the most progressive, Ghai said, the original draft was amended by MPs and key elements that would have guaranteed equity removed.
He said the original draft envisaged a parliamentary system and federal state to decentralise power from the presidency and devolve resources to the regions
“We had developed a very good draft but then, the politicians came and started changing things. We got the Constitution done their way,” Ghai said.
Ghai, a former chair of the defunct Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, was giving a public lecture during the annual British Institute in East Africa at Louis Leaky Auditorium at Museum of Kenya in Nairobi on Friday evening.