Democratic hunger, Hunger and anger

 Hunger in a Kenya…

Hunger is the most conspicuous pointer to a society living in squalor. So much has gone wrong in Kenya

 It is a pity to move into this drought crisis only months after an election which itself was crisis-like.

Food and water are most basic human needs. Lack of these means diseases and deaths

are just lurking nearby.

Billions have been allocated to ease the suffering in most affected areas…

The monies are meant for boreholes and food. I don’t understand how boreholes will improve

sustainability of water resources in the long run. Boreholes do not replenish water resources.

 It breaks my heart to know that the region most affected is the Coast, my region of birth.

I dread the feeling that someone I know may not get a wink of sleep because of a cold belly.

This not being the first time for such measures to be taken, I am not hoping for a miracle.

Relying on relief food undermines the dignity of human life. Human beings all over the world

should have sustainable livelihoods. This is what democracy means.

IMF has broken its silence regarding the Kenyan national debt….

The financial sector in Kenya has withered many storms. This sector is the fulcrum of the nation.

It is complicated as it is sophisticated. The general rule is that too much borrowing cannot be good for

anybody even for an individual. If one has to borrow then management of the borrowed monies has to be

done in a most prudent manner.  There have been noisy quarrels regarding management of

 foreign bond proceeds. If you listen carefully, you will find that there is inadequate openness.

Since governments borrow on behalf of the people there is need to put out information as much as possible.

It is not the role of IMF to safeguard the interests of Kenyan citizens. This duty belongs to parliament. Both the National assembly and the Senate in their watch dog roles must extend a third eye to how borrowed monies are spent. Unfortunately, Kenya appears to have a very weak parliament for now. This sounds like a mockery of the bicameral synergy that the constitution of 2010 sought to achieve.

Speaking of the constitution, there are efforts to amend it ….

The proposal that mainly stands out is that which seeks to create an executive premiership, then drop the presidency to a ceremonial parlour. I really don’t know if this is of good intent.

This appears to be intended to skirt electoral reforms. The Kenyan problem is grounded on the mistrust and dishonesty in electioneering. I am not seeing concrete focus in this area, but a problem transfer.

The presidency is hotly contested because of its executive nature. This in itself is not the problem.

Issues arise from how the contest is managed. So why transfer the problem to a newly created position?

This will not make the politics of Kenya any easy. Our politics are highly ethnic and quarrelsome. Creating positions may be a good starting point. However, it is important to note that the real problem is not the structure but how individuals rise and execute offices created by the constitution.What I am saying here is that the problem is the people component. There appears to be bad manners across the officialdom.
 There are people who are in search of loop holes within the supreme law with the only intent of exploiting such. As a result many organs of governance are under performing or have been made to do so. 
For instance, the parliament is created to be independent but this key organ has shown complete lack of spine. The county assemblies also appear to be wallowing under influence of many a governor. 
This is regrettable.

Courts are closing election petitions…

Yap. This is the real closure of the election period that started sometimes last year.

There is one sentence that is being repeated across many courts.

“I find the irregularities cited did not affect the outcome of the election”

So I wonder exactly how a court determines whether errors affected an election or not.

It is my feeling that this reasoning has been taken advantage of by ill politicians to

win elections by unscrupulous methods and then rely on this dark nook in which

a court has to determine if any interference in the election affected the outcome or not.

With such scenarios and other factors you will find that most petitions do not succeed.

Have your weekend!

Grateful thanks

Image: World vision