Play Fair or Reap the Whirlwind

Ms. Martha Karua is right - the government cannot take the YES campaign as a national project. It is not. The Prime Minister and the President and indeed, their Cabinet, are free to campaign for the Proposed Constitution, but they are not a recognised organ under the Constitution of Kenya Review Act of 2008. The Committee of Experts is the only body mandated by law to educate Kenyans as to the contents of the Proposed Constitution, so their civic education exercise must be funded out of the Consolidated Fund. The YES and NO campaigns are partisan affairs and do not deserve a penny from the Consolidated Fund.

Tax-payers' monies should only be dedicated towards projects that will benefit the people of Kenya collectively. The fact that here 2 camps in this campaign means that one side is being disenfranchised in the debate when the Government purports to allocate money to defeat their view. If we are serious about reforming the way politics is practiced in this country, the fact that the Proposed Constitution was part of Agenda 4 of the National Accord signed between the President and the Prime Minister cannot be used to walk all over all canons of fair play.

If the Government is going to allocate who knows how many millions to seeing the Proposed Constitution adopted, it should allocate a matching amount to the NO campaign, irrespective of the unpalatable view being propagated by its exponents. That is the just and fair thing to do.