It looks like we may expect tranquillity in the months ahead.
I say this because the two rival political coalitions – the ruling ‘Kenya Kwanza’ and the opposition ‘Azimio-One Kenya’ – have now picked the teams which will negotiate a political settlement to address certain key thorny issues which had brought thousands of Kenyans out onto the streets in violent demonstrations over the recent months.
And it is speculated that some constitutional amendments may be necessary if all these issues are to be addressed to the satisfaction of all concerned.
There are a few things I would like to point out in this context:
First is that those of us who keep up to date with global news headlines envy Israel or France, which also had pretty much the same kind of street demonstrations at roughly the same time.
But in those countries, innocent passersby were not killed by stray bullets as the police struggled to contain the protestors.
However, if you talked to citizens of some of our neighbouring countries, they would tell you that Kenyans are really very lucky and that our leaders show a remarkable willingness to compromise.
For example, we have seen the veteran opposition leader (and former Prime Minister) Raila Odinga choking on tear gas more than once in the course of these demonstrations.
But we have not seen him grabbed by a dozen or so policemen and tossed unceremoniously into a police van, as has happened several times to the Ugandan veteran opposition leader, Dr Kizza Besigye.
I should also mention that on one occasion, the Ugandan police smashed the windows of Dr Besigye’s car and sprayed the tear gas directly into his face to force him to come out of the car.
Likewise, we have seen another key opposition leader (and former vice president) Kalonzo Musyoka also on the receiving end of clouds of tear gas. But at no point was he at any risk of being shot 16 times by would-be assassins, as happened to the Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu back in 2017.
So judged by the standards of political violence in some neighbouring states, the political clashes in Kenya – tragic as they may be in their consequences – are not that extreme.
But what I really want to deal with here is proposed constitutional changes which are supposed to come from the discussions between the two rival coalitions. My view on this is that Kenyans are not very good at long-term solutions and tend to focus on what should really be just sideshows.
For example, time has revealed that in many aspects, the 2010 “new constitution”, was a somewhat superficial document. Insofar as its primary goal should have been to free us from the imperial presidency – the root cause of all economic mismanagement and corruption as well as all political tyranny over the previous decades – it is a manifest failure.
And this failure is greatest when we remember that this constitution was supposed to help us fight corruption.
Ask yourself this: when the framers of the 2010 "new constitution" were at work, were they not aware that the only effective long-term defence against official corruption is that there must always be a strong opposition which has no stake in the ruling establishment, and every motive to bring it down?
The point here is that only a strong opposition party dreaming of usurping power at the next election, can be relied on to keep any government in check.
And yet, the Kenyan political system being what it is and revolving around regional political interests – often controlled by a regional political overlord – we were bound to end up in a situation where, at the county level, we had most members of the county assemblies from the same political party as the governor, and this effectively, no real opposition.
Most counties may thus be defined as "single-party mini-states".
And they possess precisely the structure of government which for so long frustrated the dreams of ordinary Kenyans by an orgy of rampant corruption.
So why did the wise men and women who framed this constitution not anticipate that the only things the 2010 Constitution would really devolve were place-seeking, nepotism and corruption?