The story is told of a large engine that failed and no one knew how to fix it. Not until an old man came and after observing it, removed a hammer from his bag and tapped the engine, which roared back to life.
A week later, the owners received a bill of $10,000 and protested to the old man who had a simple answer. He told them that tapping with a hammer cost $2 while knowing where to tap cost them $9,998.
The lesson here is that effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference.
Two weeks ago, the Court of Appeal threw out the BBI case and upheld the decision made by the High Court. The Appeal judges found that the High Court's decision was sound but reversed some of the findings of the lower court.
Now that the dust has settled, it is now time to start looking ahead into the future, analyse the best parts of the BBI Bill that can be passed by Parliament, and get to work on getting them made into laws.
Even as the BBI proponents seek to appeal at the Supreme Court, it is clear that the judgment will not enhance the chances of a referendum moving forward. It is also unlikely that the Supreme Court will end up reversing the Court of Appeal judgment.
As it stands, the chances of taking constitutional changes through a referendum are highly diminished, it is time to think of how changes can be made through Parliament.
Instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, Kenya has a chance to enact minimal constitutional changes through Parliament as provided for in the Constitution.
Parliament now has an arduous task of getting back to work, cherry-picking the best and most possible enactments of BBI that will transform this nation, and mobilising to complete this process before the end of the year.
By next year, it will be difficult to make any significant ground as many legislators will be seeking to be reelected, and campaign season will have fully begun. Therefore, the next few months are critical for Kenya and MPs must stand up to be counted.
The Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee has written to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi informing him of its intention to introduce a bill that would allow the President to nominate two deputies.
CIOC chairman Jeremiah Kioni also proposes the establishment of the position of prime minister and two deputies — similar proposals are in the BBI report that was scuttled in the Court of Appeal on August 20.
The two proposals are significant as they are in line with the spirit of BBI, which had sought to ensure that the Executive accommodates more than one or two communities at the top.
These proposals will ensure that Kenya moves into elections without the possibility of divisions that come with the sharing of slots that have seen many communities feel like outsiders in government.
Parliament can also take up other proposals such as the increase of county funds from 15 per cent to 35 per cent. Since this doesn’t need a referendum, it is an adequate way to ensure that more money is devolved to county governments.
The establishment of the ward fund, as well as the proposal to establish a national youth commission, can be done through Parliament without the need for a referendum.
As this is done, legislators must ensure that they do now allow cheeky laws or new amendments to be sneaked in as this will jeopardise the entire process and create disunity.
The truth is that no Constitution in the world is perfect and many have been amended multiple times. We can therefore ensure that we first work with these changes that are about securing our future shared prosperity as a nation.
Parliament must put the interests of our nation first and do what’s best for Kenya.
