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CONSTITUTION OF KENYAREVIEW COMMISSIONI Kencom House, 2nd Floor P.O.Box 10526,Tel: 343601/2 Fax: 343603 Nairobi .Email: CRCkenya@nbnet.co.ke,Website:www.kenyaconstitution.org----------===---:_:_------=----_:____-~--=-----
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LECTURE BY PROF. ALI MAZRUI ATK.I.C.C. ON 23.08.01
IF AFRICAN POLITICS ARE ETHNICPRONE CAN AFRICAN
CONSTITUTION BE ETHNIC- PROOF
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LECTURE BY PROF. ALI lVLL\ZRUIAT KI.C.C. ON 23.08.01
IF AFRICAN POLITICS ARE ETHNIC-PRONE,CAN AFRICAN CONSTITUTION BE ETHNIC-PROOF
PRESENT:
Prof. Yash Pal GhaiDr. Oki Ooko OrnbakaMrs. Abida A1i-AroniNlr. Paul M. WambuaHon. Mrs. Phoebe AsiyoDr. M A. SwazuriMr. Abubakar Zein AbubakarDr. Charles MarangaMrs. Alice YanoMs. Salome Wairimu MuigaiMs. Kavetsa AdagalaDr. Wanjiku KabiraMr. Ahamed Issack HassanNlr. John Mutakha KanguDr. Abdirizak Arale NunowMr. Domiziano RatanyaMs. Nancy BarazaBishop Bernard NjorogePastor Zablon AyongaMr. Githu MuigaiMr. Ibrahim Lethome AsmanMr. Isaac Lenao laDr. Mosonik arap Korir
ChairpersonVice-Chairperson
"Commissioner
"""""""""""""""""""
Com, Salome Muigai Chairing apologised to those present for the change of venue for the
lecture.
She introduce Prof Ali Mazrui who was born in Mombasa, Kenya, on February 24, 1933. He
is now Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Institute of Global,
Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, He is Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large
Emeritus and Senior Scholar in African Studies at Cornell University, He was Ibn Khaldun
Professor-At-Large, Graduate School ofIslamic and Social Sciences, Leesburge, Virginia (1997
- 2000). He was also Walter Rodney Professor at the University of Guyana, Georgetown,
Guyana (1997 - 1998). Professor Mazrui obtained his BA with Distinction from Manchester
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Prof Mazrui has served on editorial boards of more than 20 international scholarly journals. Dr.
Mazrui's services to the Organisation of African Unity include membership of the Group of
Eminent Persons appointed in 1992 by the OAU Presidential Summit to explore the issues of
African Reparations for Enslavement and Colonisation.
She invited Prof. Ali Mazrui to give his speech.
Verbatim text of Prof. Ali Mazrui.
Thank you very much indeed, Madam Chair, I am very grateful to you for your very generous
introduction and I am greatly indebted to the Kenya Constitution Commission for this
opportunity to return to my country so soon after my last visit in July, 2001. I also greatly
appreciate the chance to make a contribution to the national dialogue concerning Kenya's
constitution future.
Before I do that and without anything in advance I would like to say something about Yash Ghai,
the Chairman of the Commission. I have known Yash Ghai from before Kenya became
independent. We were students together at Oxford University, shared the same stair case at
Nuffield College, Oxford and we became close friends. We later taught Kenyans and other East
Africans in the wider university of East Africa, he at the University of Dar es Salaam and I at
Makerere in Uganda. Later each went beyond East Africa, he to Britain and later to Hong Kong
and I to the United States. He and I are two Kenyans who for decades have had a choice to .
change citizenship, he to become British, I to become American. Both of us have remained
steadfast in our loyalty to Kenya.
Normally, our leaders do not always recognise loyalty to the country, only loyalty to themselves
but tor once I was proud of our leaders and of our country when Yash Ghai was appointed to
head the Constitution Commission. He is a man of integrity and I was proud of Yash Ghai that
he accepted the considerable financial loss incurred by accepting to serve Kenya in this capacity.
He never said that in public: I am telling you because I happen to know. Professors in Hong
Kong are paid much more highly than Professors in the United States - from my point of view,
unfortunately for those in the United States - and Yash Ghai agreed to serve Kenya when he was
about to receive a research grant of a couple of US million dollars in Hong Kong. Let us hope
the research grant will be renewed before he loses it altogether as he struggles with the stresses.~
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matters are regulated These are the two western democracies I know best because I have
actually lived in them for many years. The United States has a highly permissive legal system
on freedom of speech but more restrictive public opinion. The laws of the United States give
more freedom of speech than the laws of any other society on earth but freedom is restricted by
public opinion and sectors of public opinion. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, has a
more restrictive legal system but a more tolerant public opinion. When in my tele-vision series,
The Africans: A Triple Heritage, I accused Kaiser Aluminum, a multi national corporation, of
having exploited a developing country, Ghana, the multi national corporation threatened legal
action unless that accusation was deleted from the television series. We consulted the lawyers of
my television producers and I consulted my own personal lawyers as to whether Kaiser
Aluminum could stop me from accusing them of the exploitation of Ghana. The television series
was already done, it had not been shown in the United States: how did they know about it? It
had been shown in England: they knew about it, they wanted that to be deleted from the
showing in the United States. All the lawyers in the United States were unanimous Kaiser
Aluminum did not 'stand a chance under US. law, they did not stand a chance of forcing me to
delete my opinion from my television series. We therefore went ahead and showed the TV series
in the United States without deleting the accusation of exploitation. Kaiser decided discretion
was the better part of valour. They did not sue me. In the United States the law was on the side
of the open society In Kenya, on the other hand, the law of libel can be used to stop the flow of
information rather than to facilitate it. Libel law in Kenya can be an ally of censorship rather
than a partner of the open society
In a single week the courts of Kenya have twice intervened 011 the side of interrupting the flow of
information the case of President Moi's son and of the serialisation of Smith Hempstone
mernoirs. So the question for the Constitution Commission: does the future constitution of
Kenya need a Freedom of Information clause? Or are there alternative democratic means of
promoting the democratic goal of the open society? If the goals of democracy are the same
while the means for achieving them differ, are there African means of achieving sorne of these
goals, or even all of those goals, accountability of rulers, participation of the citizens, openness
of the society and greater social justice? So, constitution makers in Africa have to bear that in
mind how to keep the democratic goals constant while looking for democratic means more
appropriate to Africa.
5
One ethnic check which has been suggested in countries like Nigeria - and indeed Kenya - is a
regionally-rotating presidency. Nigeria had heads of state coming repeatedly from the North.
One solution was a constitutional provision for regional or zonal rotation of the presidency so
that if the president has come from this region this time around, next time, should' the president
come from another? Moshood Abiola would have been an ideal rotation president without a
constitutional provision. Until him, in Nigeria every time they had election they had not only a
Northerner but a Northern Muslim and then in the 1993 elections, they had Moshood Abiola who
was indeed a Muslim but a Southerner. So it was the beginning of breaking the monopoly of that
convergence between Northerness and Muslimness but the soldiers did not allow him to become
president although the voters had voted for him. This particular gown I am wearing is partly a
tribute to him: it was given to me by him. I remember the last time I spoke to him: he called my
house in the United States, I was not there, my wife said "Ali is at Lincoln University,
Pennsylvania". So Moshood Abiola called Lincoln University and finally tracked me down. He
knew already the soldiers would not let him become president, he said "I am going to Nigeria to
become President". I used to call him Chief I said "Chief, what is going on?". He and I both
knew that the soldiers will not let him. I said "what is going on", he said "I will see you at the
inauguration.". It wastragic last words. He went to Nigeria, called a rally and declared himself
president, then he was imprisoned and as most of you know he spent the last years of his life in
detention. I did go to speak to President Abacha afterwards to try and get him released. Abacha
received me very politely but nothing happened. Now Nigeria has Olasegun Obassanjo, a 11011-
Muslim Southerner. He came to power as well substantially because of Muslim support in the
North. So in a way you still have a situation where if Muslims behaved in a united way in the
north, you could have almost perpetual Northern presidency. And so do you need a
constitutional provision to stop it? So far it has not been necessary because Muslims voted for
Olasegun Obassanjo voluntarily without a constitutional amendment
Another ethnic check which both Nigeria and Kenya have tried out is to require that the president
is not electible unless he or she has a minimum of multi provincial support. It is not enough that
. a head of state has a majority of people on his or her side. That majority must also be distributed
nationally to demonstrate support so that you do not have a couple of huge tribes together adding
up to, let us say, 45% of the population and the rest of the population split among small groups
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how Ashanti was ruled, or how the Kikuyu governed themselves before colonial rule, or how
pre-colonial Somali achieved the miracle of having rules without having rulers, the miracle or
ordered anarchy. Now the Somali have just an anarchy without the order but before colonialism
they could have order and combine it with anarchy.
We do not have to repeat exactly what the Ashanti oi'the pre-colonial Kikuyu or Somali did we
simply need to learn from them because they did things which we are not able to do and perhaps
we could learn and adapt ideas from them. For example, how do we get a Queen Mother into the
Kenyan system? We could make the Speaker in Parliament always a woman. That is one
option. A modified version is to make the position of Speaker alternate between a man and
woman: so the present Speaker is a man, the next one has to be a woman regardless of the party
In power. Another possible Queen Mother scenario in a modern context is to have two vice
presidents, one a man and the other a woman from two different ethnic groups and both
ethnically different from the President.
Africa has experimented before with racial checks and balances - as we did in Kenya in the
Legislative Council in the 1950's when different races were represented and Zimbabwe in the
1980' s when there were reserved seats for Europeans after Independence. Lebanon has a
constitution of religious checks and balances to the present day. The President has to be a
Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister has to be a Sunni Muslim, the Speaker of the House has
to be a Shiite Muslim and the different religious denominations have prescribed percentages of
parliamentary seats. According to the National Pact of Lebanon's independence of 1943, the
distribution of the parliamentary seats was' six Christians to every five Muslims. But the
population of Muslims increased faster than that of Christians and before long the six Christians
to five Muslims looked increasingly unjust and Lebanon was plunged into a civil war. Now they
have attempted with the Taif Accord of 1990 to have some kind of parity but on balance the
issue of religious check and balances is still operational.
On attainment of Independence Kenya had a majimbo constitution which was an experiment in
etl~i~ checks and+:"reality all sub-Saharan African c.ountries should have started by ~
expertrnenting WIth constitutions at least partially based on ethnic checks and balances because
ethnicity is here now, it will be here twenty years from now, it will be here sixty years from now,
9. ,
dangerous ethnic rivalry. One African country after another invoked the one-party state as
bulwark against ethnic tensions. Our neighbour, Yoweri Museveni has been no-party state in
Uganda more recently. This is another experiment in disenthenicizing or de-tribalising politics,
Museveni has argued personasively that the multi-party system in Uganda in the past has often
ignited not only ethnic rivalry but downright conflict. Again I am in sympathy with what he
says. I lived in Uganda for ten years, I lived at the time when it was at its best and I saw it enter
into the era of Idi Amin and I saw enter into the era when I had to pack my bags and leave. So, I
know what he is talking about. In reality Museveni has allowed a good deal of multi-party
rhetoric and debate and even multi-party labels. What he has not permitted is multi-party
organisation and mobilisation, The central concern has been fear of ethnic violence.
Milton Obotes first administration had a concept which was more than just de-tribalisation of
politics. He was on his way towards this ethnic checks and balances. What I have in mind is
what was known in 1970 as Obote's Document No.5 in his move to left, He envisaged every
parliamentary candidate to have four constituencies, one primary constituency and three
subsidiary ones. If the primary one was in the east, the subsidiary ones would be in the west, in
the north and in the south, and so on and so forth, So each candidate would need a plurality of
votes in his or her primary constituency, and a particular minimum percentage of votes in the
three subsidiary constituencies. The ideas was to force each parliamentary candidate to
campaign for support among people he has very little in common with physically or in terms of
ethnic background from among northerners, southerners, westerners, easterners, So it was an
attempt to have ethnic tension checks and balances in a complicated manner.
Obote's first administration did not last long enough to implement Document No.5. We used to
call it "Electoral Polygamy", one candidate with four constituencies. Milton Obote was
overthrown by Idi Amin in January 1971 on the even of the proposed implementation of
Electoral Polygamy,
If one candidate standing for four constituencies rs too many constituencies, how about one
candidate standing for just two constituencies - one primary one which may be his or her own
ethnic groups and the other constituency distant from his ethnic groups? The candidate has to
learn how to court voters of divulgent ethnic backgrounds.
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women and all political parties at some stage said yes. Then they started arguing as to whether if
you reserve them for women, the chances are that the women would be high-caste women and
therefore while you promote gender justice, you would deny caste justice: you would increase
the disproportionate representation of caste in the Indian Pari iarnent.
For us in Kenya, for every Government in Kenya from the year 2013, we might consider,
regardless of political party, no less than a minimum of five ministries should be headed by
women. This would require that political parties field many more women candidates for
Parliament than they have done so far.
Should Kenya Muslims support such gender equity politics? I am glad there are Muslim leaders
in the audience. Kenya Muslims should remember that in some aspects of female empc:iwerment
the Muslim world is ahead of most of the Western world. Let me repeat that: that in some
aspects of female empowerment the Muslim world is ahead of most of the Western world. In the
last quarter century, four Muslim countries have had female Heads of State of Heads of
Government. It started with Pakistan where Benazir Bhutto was Prime Ministers twice. There
followed Bangladesh, another large Muslim country in population. In Bangladesh both the ruling
party and the Opposition have been led by women, Hassina Wajed and Begum Khalida Zia.
Turkey, a Muslim society with a secular state has had Mrs. Tansu Ciller as Prime Minister. And
now the largest Muslim country in population - Indonesia - has a Muslim President, Megawati
Sukarno Putri. All this has been happening in the Muslim world long before the United States
has had even a female Vice-President, let alone a female Head of Government. Germany has not
had a female Chancellor, nor France and Russia had a female President. Even the Islamic
Republic ofIran has had at least a woman Deputy President.
Other Muslim countries have already experienced years when the most powerful single
individual in the land has been a woman. This is the Muslim equivalent of the Ashanti Queen
Mother writ really large, even more than a King-maker but a female king. So, for the Muslim,
the Legacy of our Lady Aisha - the Prophet's wife and widow, as a political woman - today is
not to be found within the boundaries of where she was born four centuries ago in the Arabian
Peninsular. The torch of the Lady Aisha, the Prophet's politicised widow, has been passed to the
Muslims further east - in Islamabad, in Dacca, in Kuala Lumpur, in Jakarta and beyond.
13
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to Congress within four years. Similarly, Muslims everywhere in Kenya and Coastal people
whether they are Muslims or not should have targets they want to realise. Nobody in Malawi
expected that Dr. Karnusu Hastings Banda, Elder of the Church of Scotland, who has ruled the
country for so long with an iron hand, would one day be defeated in an election by a Muslim, Dr.
Bakali Muluzi In Sierra Leone prolonged rule by non-Muslims finally resulted in chaos and
war. Out of the chaos the country turned for the first time to a Muslim President, Ahmed Tejan
Kabbah Unfortunately the chaos and the war had gone too far to be ended by a mere electoral
change. With regard to planning and coalition building, we need to move in that direction - if
we have a target - we need a Coastal Vice-President or a Muslim Vice-President. After all
nobody during the days of either Kofi Busia or Kwame Nkrumah expected Ghana to produce a
Muslim Vice-President, yet a Muslim Vice-President in Ghana is here. He is another
distinguished young man I was privileged to meet this month - Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Vice
President of Ghana after the years of Jerry Rawlings. So, we need to embark on specific targets,
not just to be engaged in politics but to build coalition with other groups and find ways in which
we can be made participants, not just as voters but in sharing power as part of this ethnic checks
and balances. A Muslim Vice-President could of course be a Somali rather than a Coastal
person. That would also be a major step forward for the people of the North Eastern who have
often been marginalised if not victimised by succeeding regimes. I personally would
wholeheartedly support a qualified Somali Vice-President of Kenya but for the time being I
personally would not support a special distinct society status for the North East of the kind I am
asking for the Coast and I will tell you why. A distinct society status for the North East would
lead to even greater neglect of the Somali people and their deeper rnarginalisation. It would give
an excuse to the victor party of the country to say "leave them alone, neglect them, leave them to
their poverty" and that would be criminal. I would reconsider my position on that matter if-oil is
discovered in the North East. One of my American Professors when I was a student at Columbia
University in the United States, used to say "where there is desert and there are Muslims, there
may be oil". For the sake of the North Eastern of Kenya, I pray that this is a genuine geological
law.
lA final sub-section I want to put before you before my final concluding remarks is on Language
Policy. There is a major assumption that Kiswahili is the de-tribal ising language. This is
certainly true in Tanzania and Kenya to enable members of different tribes to communicate with
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There have been anomalies Kiswahili has been the language of practical politics but not the
official language of the constitution. It has increasingly become the language of morals
preached in churches and mosques but not the language of the law in courts. It is the primary
operational language of the Head of State but not of the ChiefJustice
The Kenyatta years had an additional paradox. The Head of State, Jorno Kenyatta, was the most
pro-Kiswahili member of his own government. He was pro-Kiswahili. His most powerful
minister in the 1970's, Charles Njonjo, was the most pro-English member of Kenyattas
government. Kenyatta went as far as to order Parliament to switch overnight to Kiswahi li as the
only language of legislative debate. Out of the blue, brilliant orators of English of yesterday
became almost tongue-tied in Kiswahili today and modest English speakers of last week
promptly matured into Churchillian oratory in Kiswahili this week.
After Kenyattas death, there was an effort to have a parliamentary compromise with a bilingual
parliament. In reality, the pro-English forces have been on the ascendancy in parliament A
future constitution should make this parliamentary bi-lingualims more real. It is not enough that
members of parliament have the option to speak in either English or Kiswahili. "Hansard" as the
record of parliamentary debates should be bilingual in entirety. Moreover, Ministers in the
Government should be required to give at least a third of their major policy statements in each
offtciallanguage - Kiswahili and English - in the course of each parliamentary session.
Language policy can thus be used as an important instrument of ethnic checks and balances.
The new Kenyan constitution, when it is ready, should be widely distributed in both English and
Kiswahili. There also has to be a clause to say that no later than December 2013, the so"Anniversary of Kenya's Independence, the Swahili text of the Kenyan constitution will have
equal standing legally with the English text
Legal training in Kenya from the year 2013 should require passing a course in legal and judicial
Kiswahili. No one should be licensed to practise law in Kenya after 2013 unless he or she has
passed that Kiswahili examination. We should get out to do business as anybody from any
English speaking country practising law after a week of just brushing up. In this sense language
17
presidency, Milton Obote's electoral polygamy state, the multi-provincial rmrurnum for the
presidential election. Some of these devices are still worth considering as potential ethnic checks
and balances, while others - like the one-party states - have been discredited over most of
Africa: Let us hope Ethiopia and Eritrea rebuild their countries and find peace and greater
cooperation.
Here in Kenya we should shed off the superstition that in order to foster national consciousness,
we must have a unitary state. Both the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of
America are nationally conscious societies with great propensity for patriotism and deep love of
country. In the case of Germany people are even worried about German nationalists and yet
neither Germany nor the United States are unitary states. They are indeed federations.
Local loyalties are perfectly compatible with national patriotism provided the whole system is
inclusive and accommodates difference without marginal ising smaller groups. As a wise voice
from Kisii has reminded fellow Kenyans:-
"It is important to accept at this stage that the aspect of ethnicity is so entrenched
in the country's politics that it is impossible to seek to put the country together
without a system of inclusive government. The first step towards this is to find
ways of dealing with ...... ethnicity from a positive perspective and rehabilitate
the national consciousness as a process of restructuring the country's political
economy
(.S'iJneonNyachae EGH. !vIP. "An Inclusive and Accommodative way Forward - the Case for
a Government ofNational Unity in Kenya", paper published in Nairobi, May 2(}01).
But in Africa no.ethnic checks and balances can long endure unless women are also involved in a
serious way. That why we also need gender checks and balances. British colonialists may never
forget Nana Yaa Asantewaa, the warrior Queen Mother of Ashanti, nor will Yoweri Museveni
forget Alice Lakwena, the woman who led the Acholi to battle against Museveni. We do need to
know more about the role of women in traditional political systems and see what we can learn
from those ancestral cultures. But we know enough already about men and women to insist that
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Hassan Ali commented that any constitution can work in this country (his questions inaudib le
over the mike).
Ms. Kazungu said that with regard to distribution of resources, the Commission will have to
identify the resources of each province. She also said that Affirmative Action should be applied
to media OUtfItS. She said women are intimidated because of traditions that do not allow them to
do a lot of things. She suggested that there should be capacity building exercise on Kenyan men
so that they can work together with women as partners. She also wondered how many times the
new constitution will be amended.
Dr. Ligor of Institute of Civic Affairs said that in 1968 the late Kwame Nkrumah called a
conference in Accra and told the African leaders who attended that they should take a political
system which is justified economically for the African people. He said all leaders have been
ethnic prone and that most constituencies are ethnically placed and he wondered what Kenyans
should do with their ethnic languages.
A speaker asked Prof Mazrui to comment on ethnicity even outside Africa and pointed out that
when the federal constitution of Yugoslavia failed, the country fell apart. He also asked Prof
Mazrui to comment on the younger generation and language. He said somebody like President
Kabila does not speak much Lingala but speaks Swahili. When countries become Independent
without a proper constitution in place, problems arise and he gave an example of Zimbabwe. He
pointed out that during elections it is numbers that matter and asked Prof Mazrui what happened
in America where the majority vote was not sanctioned by the constitution.
Prof. Mazrui said he understood the purpose of the lectures was partly to encourage the
audience themselves to engage in debate rather than to ask questions. He was pleased that the
speakers had made comments and not just posed questions.
On the issue of how to prevent democracy from having effects on marginalisation, he said there
has to be special precaution to prevent marginal ising consequences of freedom because freedom
can produce both winners and losers and the losers could include the more vulnerable sector of
the society.
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Tom Wolfe, all independent researcher, assured the audience that Prof Mazrui is not an
American citizen because the first time he met him in 1974 he had tried to convince him to vote
for his cousin who was running for Congress and Prof. Mazrui had excused himself by saying
that he did not have the right to vote in the United States, then he realised who Prof. Mazrui was.
He said one of the topical issues in Kenya at the moment in relation to the review process is
timing of the completion of the exercise with regard to the next election. He said certain groups
are looking forward to the Commission completing the work before the election or otherwise
because they see political advantages or disadvantages ill that. In comparative African
perspective with regard to ethnicity and gender, he asked Prof. Mazrui whether he thought it was
possible to deal with these issues in terms of producing solutions that would last and what was
the comparative African record in terms of constitutions that are produced in post-election
moments rather than lead-up moments?
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George Mirie of Citizen College for Constitutional Change raised the question of federalism
and asked if it is secure given the country's ethnicity. On reserving special seats for women, he
pointed out that eventhe audience present was not portraying the democracy that Prof. Mazrui
talked about. He asked Prof. Mazrui to address a solution to ethnicity at another forum because
it might save Kenyans from the political polygamy he had talked about. He said a cure of
ethnicity must be found
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Kwornboka of Big Sister said she was glad she came and has met Prof. Mazrui. She said the
constitution is being reviewed by people with Doctorates and are highly educated and she
believed that Kenya will have the best constitution in the world. She said the best way of
eliminating gender inequality is by adopting a document called 'Convention on Elimination of
all forms of Discrimination against Women'. In decision making, she said the best way to
involve women is by ensuring that the new constitution entrenches a quota system to ensure that
targets for increasing representation of women are met. She said no woman went to Lancaster
and said the ladies in the Commission are doing their work.
Hall. Ntimama thanked Prof. Mazrui for expounding the idea that the people of the Federal
Republic of Germany and the United States are just as nationalist as any other people in the
world, so they are federalists. He said people have said that federalism will disintegrate the
23
people are coming into a world where there is no cold war, the Third World is being given
conditions by the First World where it has to present itself as regions. He said for this reason
there is a wave of new regionalism whereby East African countries are now coming back into
federalism. He said this is the context in which he sees the new wave of majimboism coming in.
There are no longer nation states where rulers can be controlled and the people are looking for
identities at the local level He said looking at NDPlKanu cooperation, he sees the long-sighted
President Moi of the Kalenjin tribe associating with Raila Odingas Luo tribe because the Luo
community is larger within East Africa and since the cards are moving towards an East African
federal state, in the fullness of time the favour will be repaid with Luo domination at the East
African federation situation .. He was saying this because Prof Mazrui was advocating ethnic
identity and there is dilution of nationhood loyalty that is implied .. He said even the Maasai
would also be powerful in such a setting because they are across two borders. Some po litics is
being generated at the East African level which will be binding to the state parliament and this is
how he sees the rationalisation of modern day majimbo coming in. He asked Prof. Mazrui to
comment on this.
Hanson Oduor of The Disabled for Education and Economic Development Support Kenya,
representing people with disabilities, asked Prof. Mazrui to give people with disabilities his
comments about reservation of seats for people with disabilities within parliament and local
authorities since he had expounded very clearly the issue of gender reservation of seats. He also
asked Prof Mazrui if he supported the idea of disability checks and balances in the constitution
as a distinct marginalised category of society. Should language policy also support entrenchment
in the new constitution of sign language for deaf persons and Braille as a means· of
communication for the visually impaired.
Com. Bishop Njoroge said he had read about Prof. Mazrui and he was happy to see him and to
hear him. He said Professor had ably demonstrated that Kenya has been suffering ethnicity in
terms of her leadership and he has tried to find a way of incorporating it in the leadership maybe
through federalism. He said Prof. Mazrui had said he would like a Muslim to be a Vice
President and thus he was introducing another angle of a problem in a religious sense. He hadI
even said the particular Muslim he would like, that is from the Coast but that he would like the
NEP to be spared for now. He asked Professor what he would feel about a Muslim from Nyeri
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He said he would have expected the Professor to say that there should be Luo sages, Luhya sages
and the rest in the Commission.
Immanuel Dennis, representing the Children Movement, said he was glad that the Professor
had brought up the issue of the woman being incorporated in the political setup to be guaranteed
by the Golden Jubilee. He said while women issues are considered, children issues have been
forgotten. He said children make up 54% of the population and asked if they will be guaranteed
something in the new constitution so that their voice can be heard on what kind of society they
want as the future belongs to them. He said these children are the ones who have the biggest
brain in the society and that a parliamentary seat should be guaranteed for them.
Eric Origa, Kenya Economics, said Affirmative Action has failed allover the world. He said it
is important for traditional leaders to be included in the constitution and that Prof Ghai should
put out an advertisement to all traditional leaders in Kenya to go and present his views to him.
He said freedom of the information Act cannot be very effective in Kenya because of the weak
Judiciary.
Prof. Mazrui appreciated the questions and comments and made the following Verbatim
response.
The first question is, should we be engaged in this constitutional exercise under conditions of
political tension and worrying about problem of succession, issues of impending elections, etc.
In reality with a country like ours there is almost no time when there wouldn't be some kind of
political tension so we really have to deal with it, come what may. There is the succession issue
at the same time and that could be an advantage if it is true that the President intends to step
.down: it may be a good time to start afresh with a clean constitutional plate. If the Commission
is not about to finish, my recommendation - and I realise that it may not be very popular to half
of this audience - is, rather than mess Lip and ask the Commission to hurry up - a constitution is
supposed to govern our relationships for generations, if not for centuries - for goodness sake let
us extend the life of Parliament for another six months even for a whole year to make sure we
have a good constitution. To sacrifice a document of this kind and say "Hurry up, hurry up, get
27
II
At the of Ram ad han, for the first time in the history of United States, there were festivities in the
White House. The First Lady invited Muslim women there. These are people who recognise
Muslim minorities are vulnerable in societies which are overwhelmingly Christian and therefore
you have to treat them in manners that reassure them. I agree with you that societies that ill treat
Christians should be condemned. I condemn the Afghanistan time and again and any other
society that ill-treats religious minorities. So do not think I am saying this because it is being
done by Muslims it is okay: if it is tyrannical, it is tyrannical whoever is doing it and we must
find ways in which we can safeguard human beings as human beings.
It is true that when I started the debate on maj imbo a few years ago - and it was all over the
place - I was more clearly in the minority than I am today. It is true that I am beginning to feel I
am making progress although I have to wait for the Commission report before I can proclaim that
more definitively, and more still I have to wait until you vote for the constitution before 1 can be
convinced how much progress 1 have made.
With the argument whether Kenya has the propensity to drive out of the country some of its best
minds, I am afraid it is true that we have Ngugi wa Thiong 'o, we have Atieno Odhiarnbo, we
have Yash Ghai and his brother Dhararn Ghai, we have a lot of others - the brain drains in
Kenya - because we do not recognise talent, we do not encourage it and even in public
universities we have created a situation where people do not feel adequately encouraged. They
look around to go to private universities where sometimes they are more appreciated than in
public universities. We really should treat our fellow citizens as human beings: they want at
least a nod of encouragement, for goodness sake.
I I! r
i (l 1
1 I
With regard to majirnbo and East African federation and whether at the time it was because we
were discussing East African federation which affected our attitudes. Whether we discussed the
Kikuyu - they are big in Kenya - once we have the state of East Africa, the Luo come into their
own because the Luo identity is much larger regionally. It is a very good point to raise, but I
would not have raised it in relation to the end of the cold war, 1 would have raised it in relation to
the issues of globalisation and enlargement of economic scales. It is true that at the same time
economic scale is going up there is retrenchment in cultural scales. As in England, you now
have assemblies in Wales, assemblies in Scotland when you have not had them for hundreds of
29
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whole purpose of an exercise of this kind is to be much more comprehensive and much more
inclusive so that there are safeguards in the different dimensions.
I disagree with the proposition that Affirmative Action has failed everywhere. We need
Affirmative Action: in the United States it has not failed: on the contrary. It is true that
sometimes one sector gains more than was intended, for example in the United States it is
arguable white women benefited more from Affirmative Action than was originally intended.
But I am still happy that women benefited and then that black people benefited from Affirmative
Action. It is absolutely true that they benefited. I agree with you the issue is not perfect and we
have to improve upon it.
Finally, on the issue of reservation of seats for the disabled and especially for the visually
impaired. I am referring to that not simply because of my neighbour on the high table, but some
of you may know I have two children who are blind. I would not regard representation in
parliament as the primary need. The only major blessing in my being forced out of East Africa
by the conditions of Uganda at the time when my kids were still sighted-- We left Uganda, we
had no idea things were going to take a particular turn. My kids were still sighted, they went
blind in the United States - nothing to do with either Uganda or the United States, it is a genetic
fault in them. In the United States there were things that could happen, they did not have to go a
Blind School, but the whole political system is geared to make sure that the disabled are
minimally discriminated against: not just giving them a seat in Parliament. You should tight the
whole system and the people who fight should not just be the disabled, we should all fight for
them. You know, one consequence which would never have happened if I still lived in Africa;
my kids would never have realised their potential. These are blind kids: one of them did well
enough in school, he went to the best schools in the United States: he went to Princeton and
Harvard. You can't do any better than those schools in theUnited States. The other one who
went blind is 32, he is a full Professor with tenure at the age of32 in the University ofYirginia in
Charlottesville, a university established by Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of
Independence. I can't imagine, ifI still lived in Uganda, I could have been in a position to create
conditions in Uganda that would have enabled them to realise themselves, to go to the best
schools available, to become Professors if they wanted to be, to become lawyers - the son of the
Professor is a Professor of law - if they want. So we have a battle for our disab led but it is not a
31
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