My strides...

new constitution made in anger..wars and more wars

new constitution made in anger
The Hague is finally here. Now the will of God can be done. In fact, I recently acquired a dog. And for the love of justice, I named it Ocampo.

My BOYFRIEND or rather the future father to my Twins Tandy and Tonia is not amused. He(jaimbo)thinks I am disrespectful; maybe even mischievous. But, honestly, I am not. My own baba watoto has a cow called Maria. It is named after a nun he once loved. And for the love of this ‘‘Ocampo man’’, I have named my animal Moreno. Like my dog, he will sniff out the bad guys and fix them. Because of him, a fat politician will hang.And the image that comes to mind is that of the late Saddam Hussein. They sent him to some sort of ‘‘Hague’’, condemned him and put a sack on his head. Then they hanged him. The world called this justice; I cringed in horror at the televised images.

But do we want justice the Saddam way? Most of us will say: “I feel nothing!” We want someone to ‘‘hang’’ – some ‘‘blue’’ blood to spill. And this is why I named my dog Ocampo. I want it to bite some fat politicians and shred them into pieces. Like most Kenyans, I am angry and violent. But what is more: I am dead wrong! Consider why.Until I read the Draft Constitution, I was blind. Reading it was like placing a mirror in front of my face. This is what I saw. One, the draft captures the mood of the nation. We are an angry nation. And, true to our spirit, the draft is an angry constitution. It destroys everything we hate. It does it with`FITINA´ ‘‘FUJO’’ and ‘‘MADHARAU’’.Like a city council bull dozer, it knocks down the imperial presidency. I am pleased by this destroying energy. Then it moves to the provincial administration. With the bulldozer’s fork, it ploughs into this ‘‘evil’’ system. It destroys it. And I am fired by the guts! On the judiciary, it lands a heavy blow on the ‘‘corrupt’’ judges and sinks it to the ground.

All the judges have to resign and apply afresh. I am moved by the courage! And to the blood-thirsty Kenyans, God is at work. Now I have to name my second dog ‘‘Nzamba Kitonga’’. I must honour the brother for being a good ‘‘deconstructionist’’, a destroyer of things we hate.But I saw a second thing in the draft. And this is what sobered me up. For everything it destroys, it builds an alternative. I was disappointed. After the dust settled from the bull dozer, I looked for the new. Unfortunately, the new structures were not superior to what we have.AND I SAY PEOPLE BEFORE REF PLS READ AND RE READ THIS CONSTITUTION.It is like bringing down Nyayo House (which we hate) and replacing it with a ‘‘gorofa’’ house from Mathare North(MNET). The alternatives were inaccurate, playful and unsafe. Like a bad building, they will collapse for a fact. Next week I will demonstrate this, Insha Allah. I will write a letter to the pirates, Mungiki and the drug barons. My letter will be on how they can stage a ‘‘civilian coup’’ in Parliament if the draft is passed.And, more specifically, how they can create a Mungiki government with pirate ministers. If Osama Bin Laden is interested in executive power, I will show him how to get it too. At Chapter 12, the Draft Constitution is a market place for all. With Parliament in charge, anybody can control this country; all you need is about 100 irrelevant MPs. And with drug money, pirates and Al Qaeda diamonds, there is no need to buy MPs. All you need is to create your own MPs. Period.

My point? Because we are an angry nation, we have become ‘‘destroyers of things’’. We do not have what President Barack Obama calls the ‘‘makers of things’’. And that is why our schemes are about deconstruction, not building. Like me, we want our dogs to shred the fat politicians and the structures that make them. However, we have no idea how to build new ones to replace them. But is there a ray of hope?Allow me to discuss the ‘‘Mau rebellion’’ now. First I will refer to a story about Alexander the Great. This young man and a strong company of soldiers approached a huge city. At once, Alexander demanded that the King of the city surrenders.Of course, the King laughed and dismissed the guy. But determined, Alexander ordered his men to line up in a single file. Then he marched them straight towards a sheer cliff. The townspeople gathered to witness the spectacle. They were astonished as one by one, Alexander’s soldiers marched without hesitation right off the cliff and to their deaths! After hundreds of them had done so, Alexander ordered the rest of the men to stop.At this point, it was clear that to take the city, they were willing to die. The King surrendered without hesitation. And this is how we must view the ‘‘Mau rebellion’’. The owners of this ‘‘rebellion’’ have nothing to lose. Together with their soldiers, they are prepared to commit suicide. Besides, its leaders are implicated in the post-election violence by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.And because of this, maybe they are afraid of Ocampo. By extension, therefore, they are fighting for their lives. If this is true, there are two implications. One, they cannot agree on Mau, and Ocampo but fail to agree on the Draft Constitution. In other words, the ‘‘Mau Rebellion’’ is most likely to have a unified position on the constitution.My hunch is that they will be the ‘‘drivers of dissent’’ against the draft. And from this, a coalition for 2012 will emerge. But is it a coalition of ‘‘makers of things’’? Two, if this happens, the Prime Minister will be history. The 2005 referendum was ‘‘anti-Kibaki’’, but this one will be ‘‘anti-Raila’’.Bimbe or ATUARA AS U MAY WANT TO CALL IT depending on where u come from in Kenya

If Mr Odinga goes south on the constitution, the ‘‘Mau Rebellion’’ will go north. His only option is to do what Sun Tzu observed in his book, The Art of War. “… there is no greater misfortune than underestimating your enemy … when two great forces oppose each other, the victory goes to the one who knows how to yield”. On Mau, Mr Odinga’s principle is right. However, his approach is wrong. And to succeed, he must yield.

posted by Turphy @ Tuesday, April 06, 2010