Any changes to the 2010 Constitution should be done to enhance freedoms and justice, and lighten Wanjiku’s burden of taxation, over-representation and rising cost of living.
Amendments should not be made to create jobs for leaders of the major ethnic communities, which include the Kikuyu, the Luo, the Kalenjin, the Luhya and the Kamba.
If the referendum is to accommodate a parliamentary system, it thus must guarantee democracy, proportional representation that will ensure every vote cast matters, social welfare that will feed everybody, inclusivity in government and economy
and nationalism with which to replace negative ethnicity.
If the Constitution is changed, it should not be to protect ethnic inclusivity at the expense of democracy, which should be preserved to give electoral victory to the candidate who wins elections fairly and squarely. It should allow the loser to accept defeat gracefully without the government thereafter denying him or her a job, business or any other deserved service merely because they lost an election.
To protect Kenya from dictatorship, constitutional changes must ensure after completing their final terms in office, the President and the deputy should not change the Constitution to prolong their stay in office.
The result of the changes must never embrace and legalise Executive dictatorship as it did when Section 2A was inserted in the old constitution in 1982.
Given that some Kenyans such as David Murathe have been threatening Kenya with benevolent dictatorship, the law changes must not be used to facilitate that but to guarantee that Kenya will never again fall victim to dictatorship, benevolent or not.
The changes must also not allow government to detain any person as now allowed in Section 51 of current constitution, without charge or trial, contrary to constitution as happened under old constitution.
Constitutional changes need also to clearly define leadership as an opportunity to serve, not steal, make money and become rich.
The President should also be prevented from owning government as President [Daniel] Moi once did, or any governor to own county government as private property they can share with friends and allies.
With the amendments, the president should only be able to give parastatal boards, constitutional commissions and other government jobs to people to serve, not be served and make money.
Corruption also needs to be defined as an economic crime and treason that should be punished by death. Only this can end corruption. Constitutional changes must restore and reinforce Chapter Six of the constitution to remove corruption from leadership, economy, sport and the Judiciary.
The legitimacy of corruption derived from the Report of Ndegwa Commission which allowed graft in government by permitting top civil servants to do business with the same government they control and direct must be removed.
Constitutional changes should reduce positions of electoral representation to half of the current posts.
We must also criminalise and punish every electoral offence that any electoral officer is found to be guilty of.
Further, negative ethnicity needs to be outlawed as ideology of our politics, political parties and coalitions. Ethnic organisations that must be banned as soon as their endorsement of negative ethnicity is discovered.
Arrest and prosecution of persons who instigate ethnic conflicts and propagate negative ethnicity among different ethnic communities should be considered in these changes.
Let’s also replace negative ethnicity with nationalism. In the meantime, the 2010 Constitution must promote nationalism as the ideology without which Kenyans could not have attained independence and cannot
today
unite as one people.
Unlike Yugoslavians, Kenyans must not change the Constitution to accommodate rotational presidency among all Kenyan communities. Those who get national leadership from whichever community, must use it for the good of all Kenyans to eliminate the notion of “its our turn to eat”.
As nationalists, Kenyans must not change constitution to entrench negative ethnicity camouflaged as diversity and inclusivity.