The new gains and safeguards will not be realized if the citizenry do not fully understand the provisions of the new Constitution. An overwhelming number of Kenyans voted for the constitution, unfortunately many are still not aware of the contents as they actually are. This has led to distortions, particularly from our politicians when it comes to the interpretation of the material in the constitution.
According to the findings of a baseline survey Empowering Communities in the Implementation of the New Constitution, that was carried out in the months of November and December 2011, out of 95.5% of Kenyans who are aware of the existence of the new Constitution, only 54% understood some parts of the Constitution. Nearly one in every 5 individuals in this study relied on information from others regarding the constitution for aspects they thought they understood. This point out various speculative factors that would lead to such a situation such as absence of materials, low levels of literacy, lack of interest in reading, no confidence that one would read and understand the constitution on their own.
These findings point out the need for more dissemination of the Constitution material therein. Only 7 percent felt they understood the whole constitution. Majority (54 percent) understood part of it. As may be presumed many people are likely to read only certain parts of the constitution that they may feel is relevant to them or where their professions lives intersect with the issues therein. This finding thus indicates that many Kenyans may not still have read the whole document at a seating and may be ignorant of key chapters of the constitution.
Males did slightly better than women in reading the whole constitution or reading it at all compared to females. Interestingly, the majority who chose the wrong answer were women (55.4 percent) against 44.6 percent males who made the wrong choices. This may be linked to various demographic factors such as literacy, domestic chores, preferring interpretation from others as exhibited by the fact that more females than males knew and understood part of the constitution from others.
For those who reported that they had read and understood the whole constitution, the largest number came from Migori, followed by Nairobi, Garissa, Kiambu, Nandi, Makueni and last Kwale. For those who have only read and understood some of it, there is fairly good representation from all counties lead by Kiambu, makueni and Nairobi. Kwale, Nandi and Garissa had the least representation of those who had read and understood some parts of the constitution.
For those who had not read, surprisingly Nairobi had the largest representation followed by Garissa and then Nandi. In Kwale most respondents relied on others to understand the constitution followed by Nairobi and then Garissa while Kiambu least relied on others for interpretation of the Constitution.
Our research also shows an association between occupational status and understanding of the constitution. Those in formal employments’s bar for understanding all and some of the constitution is higher than for the other occupational categories. Most casuals have not read the constitution followed by farmers and then business people. Nearly equal proportions are happy to get information from others apart from students.
The data shows that as occupational mobility increased so did the levels of reading and understanding the constitution. The findings also indicate that as age increases, levels of understanding reduce. This suggests that the younger ages were more active in reading and understanding the constitution than their older cohorts. The finding has implications in terms of targeting the population for civic education.
Nearly a third of Kenyans think, contrary to the constitution that the legislative authority lies with the national government rather than the county whom 66.3 percent of the respondents identified accurately. Again nearly a third of respondents think that county government will be financed only by central government (34.3 percent) rather than both the central government and the county (60.1 percent).
There was a large proportion who indicated that voter registration takes place just before an election (48.2 percent). An understating of the continuous process of voter registration will ensure that enough people are registered and in good time. Less than half (47.4 percent) knew this fact while 2.6 percent opted not to answer the question, suggesting that they might not have had the information. Interestingly, 1.1 percent intimated at a life presidency, being completely unaware of an election every five years to elect the President. A few, 1.7 percent either didn’t know who didn’t answer.
Another surprise is that 6.7 percent of Kenyans think the President will be elected through mlolongo and 2.4 percent gave options of through affirmative action or didn’t answer. Nearly 91 percent (90.9 percent) knew that such elections will be held through ballot.
Article 140 (1) gives a very important provision in the Constitution to address the issue of challenging the outcomes of an election and due process thereafter articulated in (2) and (3) of the same Article. An overwhelming majority at 75.6 percent were aware of the provision that any person may file a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the election of the President elect within 7 days after the declaration of the results of the presidential election. This is encouraging as Kenyans can then start due process in case of a flawed election as in 2007. Together with other constitutional provisions guiding the process from declaration by the chairperson of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to swearing and due processes therein, a repeat of 2007 is guarded.
Finally, Kenyans are hungry for education on the Constitution in various areas including: abortion, about the government, about leadership, about legislature, affirmative action, bill of rights and social justice, children’s rights, civil rights, county governments and their administration, devolution, devolved funds, differences between the old and new Constitution, elections, equality, executive, gender empowerment, human rights, labour laws, land and property ownership, land issues and boundaries, kadhi’s courts, land policies, land reforms, ministries and functions, power and devolution, the president, the Prime Minister, taxes and tax regulations, women rights, youth and youth participation.
There was a lot of effort and work that went in to ensure that rights of marginalized groups are encapsulated in the new Constitution. It is therefore imperative that citizens remain vigilant to ensure the government accords these rights in practice. The new Constitution has an expansive Bill of Rights that addresses inequalities encountered by different groups. It is important that these groups are empowered to clearly understand the provisions, and that their capacity to monitor the realization of these rights be enhanced.
Academic activities
Stem off the “honorable” thugs
Five years ago, I was a very proud Kenyan as I sat listening to Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and other scores of African leaders pour praise on Kenya; not because Dr. Alfred Mutua, the Government spokesman had finally converted me to the doctrine of Najivunia kuwa Mkenya.
They were not heaping praises on Kenya because our country had sent anybody to the moon or had become the first African country to possess nuclear power. They talked fondly of Kenya for having brought to the attention of the continent that two simple things could be achieved by Africans themselves if there was the will to do so.
They cited Kenya’s National Budget that was funded 95% from domestic resources, something most African countries could not believe was possible in a continent that was still boasting the highest number of the poorest nations on earth not to mention the fact that horrid pictures of poverty and death through starvation had become synonymous with the image of Africa.
Their disbelief was justified when you recalled that most of the states in Africa were permanent begging entities of the World Bank and IMF.
This was the one lesson that Africa was anxious to learn from Kenya.
Eight years down the line, gory tales are coming out of nearly 80% of all constituencies as they attest to gross mismanagement, theft, fraud and sheer shameless misuse and misappropriation of this public fund.
Some MPs, knowing the level of ignorance, poverty and helplessness in their constituencies have for all practical purposes made their cronies believe that this constituency fund is their money given to them by the government to use as they see fit. In the end, these MPs have formed all sorts of companies using their cronies, relatives, friends, wives and even girl-friends to defraud the public of this fund.
Today, it is normal to hear that some of these funds are building lodges, brothels and night clubs in neighboring Southern Sudan. Harambees called by ordinary people have seen some sitting local MPs writing personal cheques as their contributions only to swap them with CDF cheques — a clear theft of public funds to gain popularity with the electorate.
More painfully, myopic and visionless MPs have sought to punish clans perceived to be opposed to their leadership. Such clans have been ostracized by the MPs and punished for their lack of support in elections. As such they have been excluded from all development projects as punishment for their political leanings. Schools, roads, health centers, bursary funds and any form of funding from the government have been diverted to clans more amenable to the sitting MP.
The saga of CDF does not end there. In other constituencies, area MPs are so incompetent that they are unable to secure the release of funds from the treasury due to their inability to identify viable projects and write project proposals for funds to be released!
Sad to say but it is difficult to believe that in this day and age, Kenyans from any part of the country can still elect a Member of Parliament who cannot write a proposal for CDF projects in his constituency.
As Africa emulates Kenya’s CDF initiative in the continent, here we are busy soiling it with our endless greed and selfishness! It’s time the citizenry become more vigilant even as we implement new devolved governance structures to detect any looting from the funds by the honorable thugs. You never know, it’s only the trees in the forest that may change in the coming general elections, and yet the very same monkeys will be the ones inhabiting the forests!
Sponsorship Opportunity
Sponsored Media training opportunity.
Are you involved in or wish to make use of media to disseminate information? Would you wish to go beyond public awareness to stimulating social change? Are you a youth residing in the slums of Nairobi and wish to join other social change agents in empowering the urban poor? Are you a holder of KCSE certificate? And, are you passionate about social change? If your answer is yes to the above questions, then this advert is meant for you. If your answer is no to the above questions, then forward it to those who might be interested.
As you are aware, communication approaches have been variously used for promoting democratic governance, peace-building, immunization, prevention of diarrheal dehydration and HIV/AIDS, female literacy, among others. These have been in the form of mass media campaigns, radio programmes, posters, street plays and localized outreach through communities and NGOs. Many communication initiatives have succeeded in enhancing public awareness, but have failed in going beyond awareness, to stimulate positive changes in attitudes and practices toward creating lasting social change. Communication, to impact on sustainable behavior change among individuals and groups on a large scale, needs to be strategic, participatory, based on evidence from research and results-oriented.
To stimulate social change using strategic communication more effectively, Pambazuko Mashinani through its media department, here in requests for applications from the youth within the slums of Nairobi to benefit from its sponsorship as trainees on communication for social change advocacy approaches that includes: newspaper production, media engagement techniques, edutainment, blogging, video production and crowd-sourcing technology. You will cater for your own transportation costs to Kariobangi North Estate in Nairobi. The hands-on trainings shall take place at Pambazuko Mashinani Kariobangi offices on a part-time basis in order to allow the trainees to continue with their daily livelihood activities. The 3 month training course shall begin in the month of October 2011. Successful graduands will be awarded with certificates.
Are you interested? Then email your personal essay that will help us become acquainted with you as a person, apart from your community service history, and personal demographic data, it will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself. Please provide a brief essay (750 to 1,000 words) telling us why you’re applying, what you hope to learn from Pambazuko Mashinani media program, your referees & their contacts, and how you will apply this to your community and plan to work with Pambazuko Mashinani in realizing its mission of building the information power, & capacity of urban poor people to connect and engage as participative, change-driving, healthy and dignified citizens in Kenya, at the end of the sponsorship period.
You need NOT to have engaged with media for you to apply. Applications together with your day time phone contacts should be emailed to us through info@pambazukomashinani.org.
Only applications received by 4pm on 22nd September 2011 will be considered. Consider yourself unsuccessful if you don’t hear from us by 30th September 2011.No phone calls please.
For more information please visit http://www.pambazukomashinani.org or http://www.facebook.com/pambazukomashinani
Dr. Aggrey Willis Otieno 