STATEMENT ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE AND WALKOUT
BY “THE GOVERNMENT” FROM BOMAS THREE
“Regardless of the
outcome of the current battles between Bomas delegates and the Mafia group on
the new Constitution, we have to point out that the biggest and most lethal
threat to the revolutionary struggle for permanent political change and
transformation in Kenya remains the Capitalist system of government that fuels
corruption, exploitation, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, insecurity and
looting of the country’s resources by local and international capitalists under
the supervision of Western imperialism”.
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The recent walk-out “by the
government” from the Constitutional conference that has been going on at Bomas
was probably the best exposure of the deep divisions within Narc ruling class,
the political bankruptcy of the Kibaki cabal and the determination of the Mount
Kenya Mafia to suppress and enslave the Kenyan society for the greed and profit
of a tiny minority tightening its control of the Kenyan State machine.
With the
walk out coming soon after President Mwai Kibaki directed his Cabinet to end
their boycott and return to Bomas to take over the Constitutional review
process, Kenyans may be witnessing the actual beginning of Kibaki’s inability
to govern. 108 MPs (including numerous from the ruling Coalition) have signed a
statement opposing the government’s position on the Review process and there is
no reason to show that the government will be able to take over the Review
process through Parliament without a major political fall out that may also
bring about the collapse of the one year old government.
KANU, the
official opposition, is on the side of the Bomas delegates who are also backed
by almost all LDP MPs. This arithmetic makes the walk out by MPs aligned to
Kibaki look like a preparation for political suicide in a situation where
better strategy could have postponed a new crisis for President Kibaki
following a series of failures in the past one year. The latest circus at Bomas
is a confirmation of KSDA’s position in October last year that the crisis within Narc
has no solution. The question which begins to emerge now is whether Narc
will serve up to 2007 when new elections are scheduled.
We
congratulate delegates at “Bomas three” together with all political forces that
have been opposing the illegal advances of the Mount Kenya Mafia to curtail the
birth of a new Constitution in
The
question of devolution of powers and limitation of Presidential powers that are
both at the heart of the current confrontations between delegates at Bomas and
the Mafia gang from State house have been central in the struggle of Kenyans
for a new Constitution. By opposing these major changes aimed at checking political
dictatorship and authoritarianism, the Mafia group that controls the government
is not acting in the interest of the majority of Kenyans. Last minute creation
of “consensus building Committees” headed
by the President’s loyalists armed with bogus proposals that will not check
Presidential powers are signs of a panicking ruling clique out of tune with
political realities in today’s Kenya.
It is
absurd that names like Mirugi Kariuki, Kivutha Kibwana, Koigi wa Wamwere, Paul
Muite and others that are popping up in opposition to the draft Constitution
are names that, during the Moi dictatorship, used to be associated with demands
for radical Constitutional changes along the lines that have already been
agreed upon by delegates at Bomas. The poor performance, betrayal and hypocrisy
of these former reformists are a consequence of lack of revolutionary
ideological commitments by those who have been at the head of the mass movement
in
We wish to
encourage delegates at Bomas who have already defeated the schemes of the
conspiratorial Cabinet to defend the draft constitution to the end even if this
means mobilising for mass action. While the Mafia group can juggle with
Parliamentary procedures to try and tamper with the draft Constitution, they
cannot defeat the mass Movement currently in favour of a new Constitution as
proposed in the “Zero draft” worked out at Bomas.
After the
disintegration of countless schemes by the MKM to take over the review process
(including an underground drafting of a parallel Constitution through the
outdated Ufungamano Initiative), it will be very fitting for the MKM to have
their final defeat when the Draft goes to Parliament. If this happens, it will
probably be time for the embattled government to face a vote of no confidence
in Parliament followed by snap elections for aggrieved Kenyan voters to throw
out the MKM which has become a stumbling block in the struggle for political
change in
Even though
we have reservations on the new draft Constitution, KSDA
supports the delegate’s position at Bomas
including positions on the question of Prime Minister, devolution of powers and
opposition to two draft bills that Kibaki’s Mafia cartel is seeking to introduce
in Parliament to try and torpedo the creation of a new Constitution. KSDA
stands by delegates at Bomas that the draft Constitution should not be amended,
reviewed, changed, re-written or tampered with in any way by Parliament because
such a move would be illegal and against the popular aspirations of the Kenyan
people whose views are contained in “Draft zero”.
Regardless
of the outcome of the current battles between Bomas delegates and the Mafia
group on the new Constitution, we have to point out that the biggest and most lethal
threat to the revolutionary struggle for permanent political change and
transformation in Kenya remains the Capitalist system of government that fuels
corruption, exploitation, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, insecurity and
looting of the country’s resources by local and international capitalists under
the supervision of Western imperialism.
Okoth Osewe
Secretary
Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic
Alliance (KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com