NCEC'S STATEMENT ON THE BRITISH HIGH
COMMISSIONER'S INTERFERENCE WITH THE CONSTITUTION REVIEW PROCESS IN
NCEC takes great exception with the submission
of the Kenyan government to British patronage and direction. We are horrified
by the increasing role of the British high commissioners to
The successive British high commissioners to Kenya lack any track in support
of democratization that would give us comfort in the intrusion by the current
High Commissioner on the on going constitutional review process. The
constitutional review process is not merely about crafting a good document; or
striking convenient deals amongst politicians. It has been and
still remains a process of re-engineering our nationhood and re-constructing our
state. The British are not sufficiently dispassionate as to be independent and
neutral brokers. The primary interest of the British high commission, having historically
been to protect British interests, we must be wary of the direction the crisis
is taking. Moreover we are trying to sort out the messy history that has its
foundation on the British colonialism of our country, which never ended in 1963
but merely assumed a new and subtle form after 1963.
We wish therefore to observe
and reiterate as follows;
a..
First, it is a great shame that the Kibaki
administration, a government with broad popular mandate, has severely abdicated
its responsibility as to return the country back to the patronage of the
British.
a.. Secondly, we do not believe that the British
government and Mr. Clay in particular are capable of becoming part of the
solution to
a.. Similarly, NCEC reminds Kenyans that the British
have all along supported dictatorship in Kenya (and other African countries) as
long as these dictatorships served their interests and the interest of British investors
in the country irrespective of whether they promoted the general good of the
people or not. We wonder how now the British can be trusted to
be part of the solution to problems which sustain their interest. Similarly, the
British will defend the Bomas draft constitution not
because it is sound but merely because it retains and reinforces their
dispensary serve to confirm our fears that Mr. Clay treats our republic like a
satellite of
b..
Thirdly, the British support of the draft constitution and the process makes
that draft Constitution the more suspect. Precisely because the British high
commissioner is in the business of protecting British hegemony, patronage and
capital, which are best served at the expense of the ordinary Kenyan people we
must ask ourselves whether we have it right. The British patronage cannot
support a constitution that guarantees a complete severance of the umbilical
cord that ties the former dominion and its former colonial master and that of
necessity therefore perpetuates the client-patron
relationship between the two.
c..
Therefore instead of applauding the high commissioner's intervention, we should
accept this as a serious indictment of our government, all the right thinking
Kenyans and the nation as a whole. We should be soul-searching! How can a
government enjoying popular mandate prostrate itself to the British high
commissioner?
Signed for Circulation
Kepta Ombati
Chief Executive, NCEC
ncec@ncamovement.org , ncec@iconnect.co.ke
4446313- 4445974
Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic
Alliance (KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com