Can they feel us?

For a people used to having things easy, the implementation of the Constitution has proven rather trying over the past six months for Kenyans. First, there was the spat over the Ligale Commission's delimitation of 80 new constituencies. That matter has never been successfully put to bed. Then came the appointment of two commissions, the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution and the Commission on Revenue Allocation. Now we have the spectre of the President and Prime Minister squabbling over the appointments of the new Chief Justice, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Controller of Budget and the Attorney-General. This too, as the country celebrates three years since the signing of the National Accord, and its subsequent entrenchment in the former Constitution, with its creation of the temporary offices of the Prime Minister ad Deputy Prime Ministers.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 28th February, 2008. The Grand Coalition Government is soldiering on despite the squabbles of the two Principles and their foot-soldiers. Indeed, even Jeremiah Kioni and his colleagues threatened to pull PNU out of the coalition due to what they perceived as the Speaker of the National Assembly's open bias for their ODM partners.

As Chief Justice Evan Gicheru serves his last day on the Bench, we must ask ourselves whether we are capable of navigating the treacherous political waters that have been roiled by our politicians. While many will welcome the departure of the CJ, we must not forget that the implementation of our Constitution is not limited to only constitutional appointments by the President and the Prime Minister. The challenges we face will reveal themselves as we get deeper and deeper into this process. For instance, we are yet to seriously engage with the task force appointed by the Minister for Local Government regarding the question of the devolved government. Neither are we engaged with the question of the appointment of the other Commissions and independent offices contemplated in the Constitution.

The Law Society, for all the challenges it has faced over the past year, is doing a commendable job. As is the National Council of Churches of Kenya and other members of civil society. However, we must also take part in the process. The representative nature of the institutions created by the Constitution demand that we debate the issues rather than dwell on the political advantage one community will enjoy at the expense of another. Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and his friends have asked the National Cohesion and Integration Commission to outlaw the use of the 'KKK' tag to describe their alliance; yet, members of the alliance show no remorse for having foisted this language on an unsuspecting nation.

Messrs Musyoka, Ruto and Kenyatta have, for ill or good, brought this upon themselves. If Mr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta were not Hague Suspects, would they be in an unholy alliance at this moment? Their visceral hatred of the Prime Minister, expressed in their every speech, belies the benevolent nature of their alliance. They have successfully managed to reduce the implementation of the Constitution and the 2012 general elections to a contest between their alliance and the Prime Minister. They are attempting to portray themselves as the victims of the Prime Minister's, and his men's, political machinations and by extension, that their communities are the targets of the Prime Minister's. They refuse to acknowledge that the politics of tribal numbers are a thing of the past. Kenyans are no longer willing to act as cannon fodder for the political warfare of the political class. Kenyans have taught themselves a new nomenclature: development, true leadership, integrity, inclusivity, and nationhood.

While 2012 is significant, it is not the only concern Kenyans have. We wish to see the full and complete implementation of the Constitution. We wish to see real reforms in the police services, the judiciary and in the machinery of government. PM Odinga was wrong that the Cabinet could not be trimmed to reflect the provisions of the Constitution. It could. It is only that political calculations have subsumed everything to itself that we are unable to countenance that so-and-so could not be a Minister or Assistant Minister without there being some form of development fall-out on 'our' community. If the KKK is looking forward to the 2012 elections with trepidation, many Kenyans cannot wait for it to be over and done with. Whoever forms the next government will have an onerous burden of meeting the expectations of a nation tired of the same old political practices. If they want to persuade us to their side, they must demonstrate that their hopes and fears of the future are not tied to what the Prime Minister does or does not do. If they are incapable of even this, then we will better off if they spent the rest of their lives in a cell designated by the ICC as their final place of abode.