Culture – the collective lived experience of a community – should be the basis of the construction of a nation. The constitution avers to this fact and there are provisions in the constitution for the articulation and promotion of culture. Has there been any progress in ingraining culture as a foundational basis of our society? A conversation between Mshai Mwangola and Zein Abubakar recorded on 4th August 2020 as part of the Nane Nane Webinar Series.
The 2010 constitution could not be clearer: persons with disabilities may not be discriminated against. It is, therefore, astounding that some statutes and institutions go to great lengths to ensure that they do not affirm and legitimise disability.
The pandemic has hastened the national discussion on the formation of alternative political movements and leaderships that will guarantee the national peace that the elite have shown themselves to be incapable of providing.
The Elephant in conversation with Waikwa Wanyoike, founding Executive Director of the Katiba Institute - Kenya's leading public interest litigation organisation. Currently, he is Director of Strategic Litigation at the Open Society Foundation in London.
There are at least three fundamental reasons why it is improbable that there will be BBI-inspired constitutional amendments before Kenya’s general elections in August 2022: one, the amendment procedure is long, onerous and complex; two, a broad and genuine political consensus is required; and three, the constitution explicitly creates checks against unconstitutional constitutional amendments.
Professor Makau Mutua’s proposed constitutional amendments targeting the Judicial Service Commission are highly regressive and would neuter the independence of the judiciary.
History, again, seems to be repeating itself. A system of government established in a constitution is in danger of being radically changed for the benefit of politicians. But this is not new, argues Prof. Yash Pal Ghai. In fact, a peer into the history of constitution-making in Kenya reveals a tendency of the political class to subvert theses processes for their own benefit.
The rapprochement between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga has failed to deliver much-needed services in the ODM strongholds of Kisumu, Homa Bay, Migori and Siaya counties. Residents are now wondering whether they and their party leader were duped.
The 2010 Constitution of Kenya is among the most progressive constitutions in the world that guarantees basic human rights and gives citizens enormous powers to determine how they are to be governed. Yet, ten years after its promulgation, the Constitution has done little to alter the status quo, thanks to a political leadership that is committed to subverting the Constitution’s core values and principles.
Following the March 2018 handshake between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, a re-setting of a dangerous trend in Kenya is occurring, whose origins can be traced back to the aftermath of the 2007-08 post-election violence. Kenyans have become accustomed to an increasingly irritable and angry president who demands, but is not able to command, unfettered loyalty. But the climate of intolerance that the president is creating is the public face of a deeper and much more insidious plan, an attempt at remarshalling the forces that have preserved the political status-quo in Kenya since independence, at the service of which is the Building Bridges Initiative.
Is the BBI a pact between the Luo and Kikuyu elite? If so, how will it impact the 2022 elections? DAUTI KAHURA uncovers surprising reactions to the BBI report among two of Kenya’s most politically influential ethnic communities.
During the political standoff that followed the 2017 presidential election, the National Super Alliance (NASA) espoused a road map that would lead to a political settlement through the formation of a transitional government that would have spearheaded the process of building a national consensus on political reforms. But in place of a Jubilee-NASA institutional engagement came the Handshake, a commitment by Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga in their personal capacities, which has culminated in the recently released Building Bridges Initiative Report, an underwhelming document that underscores the failure of the two principals to deliver the new political dispensation they had promised.