Implement laws fully to speed up our march to Promised Land

The Kenya Constitution 2010 marks a decade today. Amid pomp and fanfare, President Mwai Kibaki promulgated the new Constitution on August 27, 2010, replacing the Lancaster House constitution that had failed to meet the aspirations of Kenya.

The independence Constitution had been manipulated by the political class to serve the Executive while denying ordinary citizens their democratic rights. The adoption of the single party rule under the previous constitution denied ordinary citizens their right to free speech. Oppressive laws classified any opposition to government treasonable.

For us to get the new Constitution, there are many who lost life and limb in the more than two decades of agitation. Today, some people bear the scars of police brutality and State incarceration in a bid to muzzle voices of dissent. Thus, when the Government finally assented to a new order, Kenyans gave a collective sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge the Constitution would address their needs.

Indeed, the array of rights and liberties contained in the Constitution, regarded as one of the most progressive in the world, are impressive. Hitherto unknown freedoms and rights were granted. The Constitution sought to bring the excesses of leaders under control by introducing specific laws that guide their conduct and direct how appointments to public offices are made. Marginalised communities received recognition as the role of gender in leadership was also addressed through the two-thirds gender rule.

The rollout of devolution in 2013 has worked wonders. Devolution made it possible to take services closer to the people and allowed counties to determine their own priorities and work towards fulfilling them. The level of development across the country is impressive, except that corruption has found a firm foothold in the counties and threatens some of the gains made under the devolved system of governance.

Devolved functions like health have turned out to be a thorn in the flesh. Evidence points to the fact that counties are ill equipped to handle the health docket. Since 2013, industrial action by medical workers have become the norm than the exception. Another key area of the Constitution was the clear separation of power between the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. This worked for a while, but of late, the Executive has been trying to muscle in on the other arms of government.

The granting of security of tenure to the Inspector General (IG) of Police sought to remove the stranglehold the Executive had on the police, which resulted in the violation of human rights because the police was beholden to the Executive. But while the intention behind this was noble, the Jubilee government amended the Constitution through the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 to remove the security of tenure for the IG.

Elected leaders have shown disdain for Chapter Six of the Constitution on leadership and integrity. They indulge in things that bring dishonour to their offices, a direct contravention of the Constitution. Despite having a timeline to it, Parliament has failed to pass the two-thirds gender representation rule whose deadline was 2015.

Police force

Samwel Chepkonga, MP for Ainabkoi and Chairman of the Parliamentary Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, even introduced a constitutional amendment bill in 2015 that sought to suspend the clause on the two-thirds gender rule.

The change from a police force to a police service has registered little, if any deviance in the way police officers approach their duties. Police brutality and extra-judicial killings have never been worse than today, yet those are some of the ills the Constitution sought to address by granting citizens more rights and freedoms.

A politically divided country gave rise to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). This initiative, with its nine point agenda, seeks to cure ills that the Constitution was designed to cure. This signifies lack of political goodwill to fully implement the Constitution. Attempts at fighting entrenched corruption are sluggish. Even as leaders preach national ethos, their very actions and public pronouncements show the opposite.

Divisive elections, the bane of our politics, will continue to plague us until an acceptable Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is constituted. Despite the Constitution advocating equity in State appointments, inclusivity remains a sticking point. Thus, the Constitution must be implemented to the letter to allow Kenyans enjoy its fruits.